Saint Leopold Mandić

Leopold Bogdan Mandić [Mandich], OFMCap (also known as Leopold of Castelnuovo, Italian: Leopoldo da Castelnuovo; 12 May 1866 – 30 July 1942) was a Croatian Capuchin friar and Catholic priest, who suffered from disabilities that would plague his speech and stature. He developed tremendous spiritual strength in spite of his disabilities and became extremely popular in his ministry as a confessor, often spending 12–15 hours in the confessional. Although Mandić wanted to be a missionary in Eastern Europe, he spent almost all his adult life in Italy, living in Padua from 1906 until his death. He also spent one year in an Italian prison during World War I, since he would not renounce his Croatian nationality. He dreamed unceasingly about reuniting the Catholic and Orthodox churches and going to the Orient. He became known as an Apostle of Confession and an Apostle of Unity. He was born Bogdan Ivan Mandić in the coastal town of Herceg Novi, in the Bay of Kotor, then in the Austrian Empire but today part of Montenegro. He was the twelfth child of Dragica Zarević and Petar Antun Mandić, owner of an Adriatic fishing fleet, natives of Zakučac (in the hinterland of the city of Omiš, 28 km from Split). Bogdan's parents were devout Catholics; father accompanied little Bogdan to church every morning for Holy Mass, while Mandić remembered his mother as the person "to whom I owe everything that I am." His family originates from Bosnia, from where they settled to Dalmatia and later in the Bay of Kotor. Mandić grew up in the orbit of a community of Capuchin friars based in the Province of Venice who had served in his town for two centuries, dating from when the area was ruled by the Republic of Venice. Physically malformed and delicate, he grew to a height of only 1.35 m (4 ft 5 in), with a clumsy walk. He also had a stutter and stomach ailments.