ANTONIO MARIA PUGGI, Blessed
— Servite, in secular life Eustachio, born at Poggiola di Vernio (diocese of Pistoia) on 16 April 1819, died at Viareggio (diocese of Lucca) on 12 January 1892.
He entered the Order on 10 July 1837, was ordained priest in 1843, and served first as assistant parish priest and then for 45 years as parish priest of the church of S. Andrea at Viareggio, where the people used to call him the “little curate.” He spared no effort in his pastoral care, preaching, hearing confessions, removing scandals, aiding the poor, even stripping himself of his own belongings, assisting the sick and the dying, especially during the cholera epidemics of 1854, 1855, and 1858. Anticipating the modern forms of Catholic Action, he founded associations for every category of his parishioners: children, young people, men, and women; he founded the Mantellate Servite Sisters of Mary for the education of girls, the first seaside hospice for poor sick children, introduced the Conferences of St Vincent de Paul and the Pontifical Missionary Works. He was also superior of his community and from 1884 to 1890 provincial.
He was beatified by Pius XII on 22 June 1952.