Tommaso Riccardi (24 June 1844 – 25 March 1915) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and Benedictine monk of the

Cassinese Congregation The Subiaco Cassinese Congregation is an international union of Benedictine houses (abbeys and priories) within the Benedictine Confederation. It developed from the Subiaco Congregation, which was formed in 1867 through the initiative of Dom Pietro ...

. His monastic name was Placido. He was beatified in 1954.

Life

Tommaso Riccardi was born in

Trevi The area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ) is a collection of justice as well as migration & home affairs policies designed to ensure security, rights and free movement within the European Union (EU). Fields covered include the harmonisati ...

on 24 June 1844 and spent his childhood in

Umbria it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , ...

. He moved to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in 1865 in order to study for the priesthood. He studied philosophy at the Angelicum in Rome. A pilgrimage to Loreto motivated him to enter the abbey of

St. Paul Outside the Walls The Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls ( it, Basilica Papale di San Paolo fuori le Mura), commonly known as Saint Paul's Outside the Walls, is one of Rome's four major papal basilicas, along with the basilicas of Saint John in the ...

on 12 November 1866. He made his final profession in 1868. As a deacon on 5 November 1870 he was arrested due to the fact that he dodged conscription; he was imprisoned in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

and then sent as a soldier in

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...

after his release from prison on 24 December 1870. He then returned to Rome to resume his studies. He was ordained to the priesthood on 25 March 1871. He was novice master; among his novices was the future cardinal

Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster OSB (, ; 18 January 1880 – 30 August 1954), born Alfredo Ludovico Schuster, was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate and professed member from the Benedictines who served as the Archbishop of Milan from 1929 until his ...

. He contracted

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

in 1881 and suffered from that disease for the rest of his life. He served as a spiritual director in

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...

from 1882 and rector rector of the Basilica of Santa Maria di Farfa in 1894 and lived in hermitage near San Fiano. He served as a confessor to a

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

Poor Clares The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare ( la, Ordo sanctae Clarae) – originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and later the Clarisses, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis ...

. Cardinal Schuster revered him and wrote that he prepared his Sunday sermons for three days and regretted that he could only devote four days a week to deep mental prayer. He died on 25 March 1915 in Rome in St. Paul's Abbey.

Beatification

Riccardi's spiritual writings were approved by theologians on 9 May 1934. The beatification process commenced in Rome on 27 March 1935;

Pope Pius XI Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City fro ...

, granted him the title of

Servant of God "Servant of God" is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. Terminology The expression "servant of God" appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in th ...

. Two local processes ensued, both ratified on 20 November 1940. The recognition of his life of

heroic virtue Heroic virtue is a phrase coined by Augustine of Hippo to describe the virtue of early Christian martyrs and used by the Catholic Church. The Greek pagan term hero described a person with possibly superhuman abilities and great goodness, and "it ...

on 4 June 1944 allowed

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

to confer upon him the title of

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cathol ...

. Pius XII also approved two miracles attributed to his intercession and beatified him on 5 December 1954 in the Pontifical decree ''Umbriam Sanctorum''.

References

External links

Hagiography CircleCatholicSaints.Info
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riccardi, Tommaso 1844 births 1915 deaths 19th-century venerated Christians 20th-century venerated Christians Benedictines 19th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests Italian beatified people