Saint Pompilio Maria Pirrotti

Pompilio Maria Pirrotti (29 September 1710 – 15 July 1766), born Domenico Michele Giovan Battista, was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Piarists. He operated across the Kingdom of Naples as a teacher and as a preacher and he received widespread criticism from detractors that led to his immediate expulsion from the kingdom at the behest of the King. He was later readmitted into the kingdom after public pressure. Pirrotti assumed the name of Pompilio Maria of Saint Nicholas upon becoming a professed member of the order and assumed his deceased brother's name (Pompilio Maria) when he commenced his novitiate. In 1890, Pope Leo XIII beatified him and Pope Pius XI proclaimed him to be a saint of the Roman Catholic Church on 19 March 1934. For his tireless work with the children of central Italy he is known as the “Apostle of the Abruzzi”. Domenico Michele Giovan Battista Pirrotti was born in Montecalvo, Italy on 29 September 1710, the sixth of eleven children to the nobleman Girolamo Pirrotti and his wife Orsola Bozzuti - Girolamo was a Doctor of Law. Domenico was baptized the next day. Despite the opposition of his parents, when he was sixteen he consulted with his confessor on his religious vocation and fled his parents' home. He traveled to Benevento in order to pursue a path in a religious order. His father wrote to him a moving letter explaining his position on the matter and asking for his son's forgiveness; Girolamo also gave Pirrotti his blessing for his son's future. At the age of eighteen, he entered the Piarist order and assumed the name of "Pompilio Maria" in honor of his deceased brother of that name. The name 'Pompilio' derives from the Medieval Latin 'Pompilius,' meaning 'fifth born'. During his religious formation, Pompilio toured various Italian regions close to his hometown.