SAGGIO, NICOLA, blessed. - Minim religious, b. at Longobardi (Cosenza) on 6 Jan. 1650, d. at Rome on 3 Feb. 1709. The son of peasants, he entered the Minims at Paola, professing as an oblate.
He was questor, porter, and sacristan in various convents of the Province. In 1681 he was sent to Rome to the College of the Calabrian Minims, to which parish care was attached, as companion to the parish priest. Everywhere he shone by his regular observance, spirit of penance, profound humility, and loving assistance to the poor. Favoured with extraordinary gifts of prayer, he was dear to Popes Innocent XII and Clement XI, who often summoned him to their presence. He was beatified by Pius VI (in 1786, together with his confrère Fr Gaspare de Bono, Spanish provincial); his body rests in the Roman conventual church, opposite the monumental chapel of S. Francesco di Paola, which the blessed himself had built with the alms he collected.