PACIFICO, Blessed. - Companion of St. Francis, a native of the March of Ancona. He was called "king of verses": in the secular state he was probably a juggler of renown, skilled also in composing and singing.

He had also been crowned by the Emperor (perhaps Henry VI or Otto IV). He had a sister who was a nun at Sanseverino, and once, while going to visit her, he met St. Francis. A vision impelled him to embrace his life, and he became one of the Saint's confidants, who in 1217 sent him as superior of the first Franciscan expedition into France, where he founded convents and was the first provincial of the region. Perhaps in 1223 he returned to Italy, where he is still found at the side of St. Francis. After 1230, while he was already old, Brother Elias, general of the Order, sent him again into the regions of northern France, where at an uncertain date he died, in the convent of Lens (Belgium) founded by him during the first mission.

He enjoys the title of blessed in the Franciscan Order, in whose Martyrology he is commemorated on July 10.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: Ciro da Pesaro, P. Re dei Versi, in Picornum seraphicum, 4 (1918), pp. 121-69; U. Cosmo, Il Re dei versi, in Con Madonna Povertà, Bari 1940, pp. 59-81.

Alberto Ghinato

@incollection{ec9_pacifico_beato, author = {Ghinato, Alberto}, title = {Pacifico, beato}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {506}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/pacifico-beato} }

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Pacifico, Blessed

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