Saint Alfonso Maria Fusco

Alfonso Maria Fusco (23 March 1839 – 6 February 1910) was a Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Sisters of Saint John the Baptist – also known as the Baptistine Sisters. Their mission was to evangelize and educate as well as to promote the faith amongst adolescents with a particular emphasis on those who were poor or abandoned. He received beatification from Pope John Paul II in 2001 and Pope Francis approved his canonization on 26 April 2016 – a date was determined on 20 June 2016 for sainthood and it was celebrated on 16 October 2016. Alfonso Maria Fusco was born as the first of five children to Aniello Fusco (a farmer) and Giuseppina Schianova at Angri in Salerno on 23 March 1839; his parents married on 31 January 1834. Alfonso's birth was attributed to the intercession of Alphonsus de Ligouri whose tomb the couple had visited. A Redemptorist priest named Saverio Pecorelli assured them that: "You will have a son; you will name him Alfonso; he will become a priest and will live the life of Blessed Alfonso". It was two months after the infant's birth that Alphonsus de Ligouri was canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. His parents sent him to a church school where he was entrusted to the priests. This made Alfonso dream of becoming a priest. Fusco built an altar so he could pretend to perform Mass. From his childhood, his parents noticed his compassion for children who were in need, as told in the book Operaio di Dio ('Alfonso Is His Name'), by Monsignor Salvatore Garofalo. Fusco was a mild and gentle character who was responsive to the plight of the poor. He received his First Communion and Confirmation at the age of seven. Fusco – at the age of eleven – informed his parents that he wanted to become a priest and entered the Seminary of Nocera dei Pagani on 5 November 1850. According to Eliodoro Tedesco's Biographic Profile of the Venerable Don Alfonso Maria Fusco, Founder of the Sisters of St.