Saint Ludovico of Casoria

Ludovico da Casoria - born Arcangelo Palmentieri - was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Order of Friars Minor. He was a renowned social reformer who founded both the Grey Friars of Charity and the Grey Sisters of Saint Elizabeth. Pope Francis canonized him as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church on 23 November 2014; he remains a patron of Casoria and of his religious orders. Arcangelo Palmentieri, was born in Casoria, near Naples, on 11 March 1814. He apprenticed as a cabinet maker in his youth. He entered the novitiate of the Order of Friars Minor on 1 July 1832, taking the name Ludovico. Ludovico was ordained five years later and was appointed to teach philosophy, mathematics, and chemistry to the younger members of the Order at the Franciscan priory of Saint Peter (San Pietro) in Naples. Ludovico reported having a mystical experience in 1847, after which he embarked on a lifetime of establishing works to care for the poor and needy of the time, founding dispensaries and orphanages. About 1852 he opened a school for the education of African boys and girls redeemed from slavery. He also founded institutions for the deaf and the mute. He also worked to provide care for the elderly members of his own Order. In addition to an infirmary for friars of his province, he began charitable institutes in Naples, Florence and Assisi. Following the advice of his superiors to find others to whom he could entrust this work, in 1859 he instituted a community of men as a religious congregation of the Franciscan Third Order Regular at San Pietro. The group was composed of men who had belonged to the Secular Franciscans. They became known as the Gray Friars of Charity (Italian: Frati Bigi della Carità) on account of the traditional grayish color of the Franciscan religious habit.