Pietro GAMBACORTA (Gambacorti, Latin: Gamba-curta), Blessed. — Founder of the Poor Hermits of St Jerome, or Gerolamites, born in Pisa on 15 February 1355, died in Venice on 17 June 1435. His father, Gerardo, of the noble G. family originally from Germany, seems to have been the brother of Pietro G., moderator of the Pisan Republic; his mother, Niera, a woman of great piety, was in close epistolary contact with St Catherine of Siena.
While his father sought to secure the family line by arranging a marriage for his son Pietro, the latter withdrew to the eremitical life, first on Monte Cesana near Urbino, now Montecello. Later, joined by some disciples, he founded the Congregation of the Poor Hermits of St Jerome, suppressed in 1933 by Pius XI because reduced to very few hermits, making community life impossible. In 1729 the Office and Mass of the Blessed were approved. The exact place of burial is unknown; diligent searches, especially in the church of the monastery of St Jerome in Venice, the most probable site, have proved fruitless.