Blessed Giovanni da Penna

Giovanni da Penna (1193 - 3 April 1271) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Order of Friars Minor. He became a Franciscan in 1213 after hearing Fra Filippo - one of the disciples of Francis of Assisi - preach. He spent over two decades in France where he oversaw the establishment of Franciscan houses before returning to the Italian peninsula where he served his life in quiet cloistered retirement. His beatification received the papal approval of Pope Pius VII on 20 December 1806 after the latter decreed that there existed an enduring and popular local 'cultus' - or devotion to the late priest - through the centuries. Giovanni da Penna was born in 1193 in Penna San Giovanni. He became a professed member of the Order of Friars Minor in 1213 in Recanati. Fra Filippo - sent to Penna San Giovanni at the behest of Francis of Assisi - came to preach in the church of Saint Stephen and so he attended this sermon and listened in astonishment while afterwards begging to be received into the order and vested in its habit. Fra Filippo told the hopeful that he would receive him into the order if he were to go to Recanati. The now ordained priest attended the provincial chapter of the Franciscans in Recanati, and was sent to Languedoc in 1217 alongside other companions to spread the work of the order there. It was there that he desired his life would soon come to a close so that he could return to God and so he sat under a tree to reflect and beseeched the Lord to take him - but a voice responded that he still had much work to do on Earth. He founded several houses for the order in Provence in France during an apostolate that spanned over two decades. He returned to the Italian peninsula in 1242 after a messenger from the Father Provincial came to summon him back and he returned to live the bulk of three decades in cloistered retirement. In 1248 he settled civil unrest in his hometown after writing a pact that was used during negotiations.