Blessed Domenico Spadafora

Domenico Spadafora (1450 – 21 December 1521) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Order of Preachers. Spadafora was a noted evangelist and attracted countless to the Dominican fold while also converting the hearts of others who led dissolute lives. He is best known for being the first superior of a church he oversaw construction of in Monte Cerignone after receiving the papal approval of Pope Alexander VI to commence such work. Spadaforo received beatification from Pope Benedict XV in 1921 after the pontiff confirmed the late priest's 'cultus' (or popular and widespread devotion) as being enduring. Domenico Spadafora was born in 1450 in Randazzo to nobles that came from Constantinople. He was born as the third of five children to the Baron of Maletto Giovanni Spadafora and his lower-class wife Marina. His elder brother was Giovanni while he had two sisters - one being Bartolomea - and another brother named Pietro. He studied in Perugia after moving there in 1477 and was later sent to Padua where he earned his bachelor's degree on 23 June 1479. In Venice on 7 June 1487 he was granted his master's degree in theological studies after a public dissertation alongside eleven other candidates. He joined the Order of Preachers at the convent of Santa Zita in Palermo after returning following the dissertation when his superiors recalled him. Spadaforo was ordained to the priesthood in 1479. He participated at the General Chapter of the order in Venice in 1487. He was supposed to be assigned to a convent in Messina in 1487 but the Father General of the order Gioacchino Torriani decided to have him as his collaborator in Rome; in 1487 he participated in the General Chapter in Le Mans in the Kingdom of France. Spadaforo became a noted preacher and evangelist and won the hearts of converts that had led dissolute lives - such an example of holiness also prompted countless others to join the Dominican fold as religious themselves.