Venerable Tommaso Bellacci

Tommaso Bellacci (1370 - 31 October 1447) was an Italian member of the Third Order of Saint Francis. Bellacci was a butcher and became a religious after turning his life around from one of sin to one of penance and servitude to God. Bellacci travelled across the Middle East and the Italian peninsula to preach and administer to people despite not being an ordained priest. His beatification was celebrated in 1771. Tommaso Bellacci was born in Florence in 1370 in the neighborhood of the Ponte alle Grazie. His parents came from Castello di Linari in Val d'Elsa.;. He became a butcher like his father. During his youth he got into a good deal of trouble on various occasions, and led such a wild and dissolute life as an adolescent that parents warned their sons to keep their distance from him. Persuaded by a friend to change his ways, he tried to enter a religious order but found strong resistance to being accepted. Bellacci was accused of having committed a serious crime in 1400 that he in fact did not do and so he wandered the streets of Florence until he met a priest who listened to Bellacci and took him in and helped clear his name. The incident shocked him so much - coupled with his appreciation of the priest - that he shed his life of sin and decided to live a life of total penance and service to God. He joined the Third Order of Saint Francis in Fiesole under the spiritual guidance of Friar Giovanni da Stronconio and became noted for keeping vigils and fasting. Bellacci was very particular in keeping to a literal interpretation of the Franciscan Rule. As novice master, despite not being a priest, he led by example. He became part of the Observant reform and in 1414 accompanied another friar to Naples to introduce the Observant practice in the Franciscan houses there. He remained in Naples six years, preaching and helping to spread the reform.