Blessed Ferdinando Maria Baccilieri

Ferdinando Maria Baccilieri (14 May 1821 - 13 July 1893) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Secular Servites. Baccilieri was also the founder of the Sisters Servants of Mary of Galeazza - a religious congregation designed for women. He had become well known for restoring a troubled parish to one brimming with the faith and was made its parochial vicar as a result of his good work and effort in the Bolognese parish. He died with a staunch reputation for personal holiness and was beatified on 3 October 1999 after Pope John Paul II approved the findings of the beatification cause which included a miracle attributed to his direct intercession. Ferdinando Maria Baccilieri was born on 14 May 1821 in Modena to parents who ran a school where Baccilieri spent most of his childhood; he was baptized on 15 May 1821. It was there he received a decent education and also studied with the Barnabites in Bologna and the Jesuits in Ferrara. When he studied with the Jesuits he felt that he had a strong calling to the religious life and desired to join the missions in the East as a means of spreading the message of the Gospel. However this idea never materialized so he instead went to Rome to commence his novitiate as a potential Jesuit; however ill health forced him to drop out and return home. He underwent his theological and philosophical studies (and also learnt civil and canon law) and was ordained to the priesthood upon the completion of his studies on 2 March 1844. In 1851 he was sent to Bologna to the troubled parish of Galeazza Pepoli - as a sign of the archdiocese's esteem for his work he was appointed as the parochial vicar of that parish. He was later professed as a Secular Servite in 1855. In 1867 he lost his voice and was forced to write out homilies and addresses and have others deliver them for him. Despite this he continued to focus on hearing confessions and caring for the parish community the work of his congregation.