Bl. Antonio Lucci

Angelo Nicola Lucci was born in 1682 in Agnone, in Molise, Italy. He joined the Conventual Franciscans, taking the name Antonio, and was ordained in 1705 together with his friend St Francis Anthony Fasani. He became a doctor of theology and taught in the order's colleges, and from 1719 he directed the College of St Bonaventure in Rome. Benedict XIII made him a theologian at the Roman Synod of 1725.

In 1729 he was named Bishop of Bovino in Apulia. There he opened an elementary school and organised catechism classes. He was known as much for charity as for learning. A former student testified that in winter he more than once took off his own undergarments to give to the poor, and went shivering. He died in Bovino in 1752.

Antonio Lucci was beatified in 1764.

Beatification allows public veneration, usually in a particular region or religious family. Canonization extends it to the whole Church.