Blessed Pietro Casani

Pietro Casani (8 September 1570 – 17 October 1647) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Piarists. He became an assistant and a close personal friend of Giuseppe Calasanz. Casani had assumed the religious name of "Pietro della Natività di Maria" upon his solemn profession and had once been part of the Congregazione della Beata Vergine Maria that Giovanni Leonardi founded. Casani served in numerous roles of leadership within the Piarists due to being a close assistant to Calasanz and travelled across the Italian peninsula for visitations of various houses while living in Rome and Naples as part of his duties. He was an advocate for the religious of the order being poor and moved to the Piarists from Leonardi's for that exact reason. His beatification cause commenced on 22 March 1922 - under Pope Pius XI and he became titled as a Servant of God: the first stage in the sainthood process. He was made Venerable in 1991 and Pope John Paul II beatified him in Saint Peter's Square on 1 October 1995. Pietro Casani was born in Lucca on 8 September 1570 as the sole child to Gaspare Casani (d. 1626) and Elisabetta Drago (d. 1591) - both were from old noble families. In his childhood he studied the humanities and music and he could use several musical instruments. On important liturgical events - at the Observance Saint Francis' Church - he was stationed at the organ. The Franciscan Order oversaw his education in Lucca - where he graduated in both theological and philosophical studies. He felt called to enter the Congregazione della Beata Vergine Maria - that Giovanni Leonardi founded - after his mother's death in 1591. The death of his mother and his own departure left his father alone and he later became blind. Gaspare later joined his son in Leonardi's order in 1613 and died later in 1626. In Lucca he founded the "Congregazione di Nostra Signora della Neve for adolescents.