Belated Saint of the day- Bd Leopold of Gaiche- Apr 2

Blessed Leopold of Gaiche, Priest and Monk        (AD 1815)
         


He was born at Gaiche, in the diocese of Perugia. He was born to humble parents, and baptized John. He was educated by a priest from a nearby town. At age 18 he became a Franciscan friar at the friary of Citabola. He took the name Leopold. He was ordained a priest in 1757. Afterwards he was sent to preach courses of Lenten sermons, which he became famous for. Because of the eloquence and fervor with which he gave his sermons, many were converted, enemies were reconciled to each other, and people clamored to make their confessions to him. He was made
Papal missioner to the states of the church in 1768, and for 10 years he preached missions in several dioceses. Even after he was made minister provincial, he continued to preach his missions. Inspired by the examples of Bd Thomas of Cori and St Leonard of Port Maurice, he wanted to found a house where missioners and preachers could come for their yearly retreat and where other brothers and friends of the order could come for retreat. He met with many obstacles to this dream, until he was finally able to open a house on a lonely hill, called Monte Luco., which is near Spoleto. In 1808, Napoleon invaded Rome and imprisoned Pope Pius VII. The dictator suppressed religious houses, and forced the religious who occupied them to leave. At this time, Bd Leopold was 77. Because of Napoleon's invasion of Rome, He was forced to abandon the house he had founded, and had to live, with 3 of his fellow brothers, in a small, very poor hut in Spoleto. While in this town, he helped a local parish priest. Soon afterward, he had to take charge of a whole parish because its pastor had been driven into exile by Napoleon's army. Leopold was imprisoned for a while because he refused to take an oath which he believed to be unlawful. His imprisonment was short, and he was soon back to preaching missions again. His fame became even greater because of his powers of prophesy and strange things that began to happen in his presence, For example, during his sermons he often seemed to bear the marks of a crown of thorns. When Napoleon was finally overthrown, Leopold quickly made his way back to Monte Luco. There, he began the task of getting things back to the way they were before the French invasion of Rome. However, he only lived a few months after the dictators overthrow. He died on April 15, 1815, at age 83. Soon after his death, miracles were reported at his tomb, and his cause for beatification began quickly as a result. He was declared Blessed in 1893.