Venerable Giacomo Bianconi

Giacomo Bianconi (7 March 1220 – 22 August 1301) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Order of Preachers. Bianconi - who hailed from Umbria - joined the order in his adolescence and dedicated his pastoral career to his flock and on one notable occasion aided refugees when Frederick II sacked the area in 1248. He also combatted heresies and managed to convert one of their chief propagators while also distinguishing himself through his life of extreme poorness that went past the Dominican standards. The difficult road to sainthood commenced under Pope Paul V in 1608 and was stalled several times until Pope Urban VIII decided to preside over the beatification in 1641 - the process had failed then and the pontiff's death exacerbated the prospect of the process never facing completion. It reopened one final time and allowed - on 18 May 1672 - for Pope Clement X to confirm Bianconi's beatification on the recognition of the late priest's local 'cultus' - or popular veneration. Giacomo Bianconi was born on 7 March 1220 in Umbria. His birth spouted a miracle when - as he was born - three brilliant bright stars containing three separate images of friars amongst the clouds: these individuals were later confirmed as Bianconi himself as well as Thomas Aquinas and Ambrose of Siena. In his childhood he achieved peace between two quarreling families. Bianconi became a member of the Order of Preachers in Spoleto in 1236 during his mid-adolescence after meeting two Dominican friars preach during Lent. He decided to choose an extreme life of poorness that exceeded Dominican standards. He founded - and became the first prior at the same time - the convent in Mevania. Bianconi aided survivors and refugees from Mevania in 1248 after Frederick II sacked the town in 1248. He helped to quash the Nicolaites heretical movement in Umbria and scored a success against the opposition when he managed to convert its chief propagator named Ortinellus.