PAOLUCCI di CALBOLI (GIROLAMO da Forlì).
Capuchin preacher, known as the “Apostle of the Madonna,” born in Forlì in 1552, entered the Capuchins on 19 March 1591, died at Parma on 19 March 1620.
He was one of the foremost preachers in Italy, leaving a deep impression especially in Cremona, Parma, Rome, Venice, Bologna, Milan, Modena, Finale, Reggio, and Comacchio. He possessed various mystical gifts, such as ecstasy and prophecy. The Madonna appeared to him several times, instructing him in divine mysteries. Devoted to the Blessed Virgin, he extolled her glories wherever he went. In Cremona, where a monument was planned in his honor, he founded the “Congregation of the Madonna del Popolo.” He introduced the practice of solemnly crowning miraculous images of the Virgin, a rite later reserved to the Vatican Chapter.