Venerable Mariano da Roccacasale

Mariano da Roccacasale (13 January 1778 – 31 May 1866) - born Domenico di Nicolantonio - was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious from the Order of Friars Minor. He was of peasant stock and entered the order in his twenties as a professed religious rather than as an ordained priest. He was an influence in the decision of Giuseppe Oddi joining the Franciscans after their 1863 encounter. He became titled as a Servant of God under Pope Leo XIII on 12 December 1895 with the commencement of the canonization cause. He received the title Venerable in 1923 under Pope Pius XI; Roccacasale was beatified - alongside Oddi - when Pope John Paul II presided over the late Franciscans' beatification on 3 October 1999. Domenico di Nicolantonio was born on 13 January 1778 in L'Aquila as the last of six children to Gabriel di Nicolantonio and Santa de Arcángelo. His childhood nickname was "Cicchetti". He tended to the fields as a shepherd on Mount Morrone in his childhood until the recognition of his call to the religious life in 1801. He entered the convent of the Order of Friars Minor - Saint Nicholas it was called - in Arischia in 1802 where he would serve as both a cook and gardener in addition to begging for alms until 1815. He assumed the name of "Mariano da Roccacasale" and became vested in the Franciscan habit on 2 September 1802 as a religious rather than as an ordained priest. He commenced his period of novitiate in 1802 and made his vows in 1803. He relocated to Bellegra in Rome in 1915 and there served as a porter where he was to welcome the poor as well as pilgrims. He collapsed at the foot of the altar - on 23 May 1866 - while in meditation before the Eucharist; he was rushed to his bed and predicted his imminent death and so asked to receive the sacraments for the final time before he died. He died on 31 May 1866.