Blessed Angelo Paoli

Angelo Paoli, O.Carm (born Francesco; 1 September 1642 – 20 January 1720) was an Italian Catholic priest in the Carmelite Order. He became known as the "father of the poor" due to his strong charitable outreach, for which he received praise from a number of cardinals and other prelates while living in Rome. This extended to his friend Cardinal Giuseppe Maria Tomasi and to Popes Innocent XII and Clement XI, who both offered him the cardinalate, which he refused. Paoli's beatification was celebrated on 25 April 2010 in the Basilica di San Giovanni Laterano, with Archbishop Angelo Amato presiding on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. Francesco Paoli was born on 1 September 1642 in Argigliano as the eldest of seven children (three brothers and three sisters) to the peasants Angelo Paoli and Santa Morelli (d. 1654); one brother was Tommaso. His parents named him in honor of Francis of Assisi to whom they had a strong devotion. As a child and adolescent he spent the greater part of his leisure time teaching Catholic doctrine to the poor children of Argigliano. He attended grammar school in Minucciano where his maternal uncle was Father Morelli, the assistant priest. On 27 November 1660 he was admitted into the Carmelites at the convent of Cerignano in Fivizzano alongside his brother Tommaso. The two brothers returned home for several months before receiving the habit in Fivizzano, and then deciding to go to Siena to the convent of San Nicola for the novitiate (their father escorted them); Paoli assumed the religious name of "Angelo" in honor of his father. He made his vows on 18 December 1661 and then spent a prolonged period doing his philosophical and theological studies in both Pisa – at the convent of Santa Maria del Carmine – and Florence. He was made a subdeacon on 20 December 1665 and was elevated into the diaconate on 19 December 1666. Paoli was ordained to the priesthood in Florence in 1667 and celebrated there his first Mass on 7 January.