ROMANO, VINCENZO, venerable. – Born in Torre del Greco (Naples) on 3 June 1751, he died there on 20 December 1831, after almost 35 years of pastoral ministry.
He entered the Seminary of Naples in 1765 and attempted to be admitted to the Society of Jesus. Ordained a priest in 1775, he exercised an intense spiritual and social ministry during political upheavals and numerous eruptions of Vesuvius that severely tested his city. On 25 March 1895, Leo XIII declared the heroic nature of his virtues, expressing the hope that the secular clergy of Italy might, in the not-too-distant future, have a sublime example of a parish priest.
BIBL.: C. Balzano, Il ven. V. R. parroco di Torre del Greco, Naples 1932. Salvatore Garofalo