Bl. Domenico Mazzarella

Domenico Mazzarella was born in 1802 at Frattamaggiore near Naples, the youngest child of a rope-maker and a weaver. He joined the Alcantarine Franciscans as Brother Modestino of Jesus and Mary and was ordained a priest in 1827.

He ministered especially to prisoners, women in childbirth and the sick. He was spiritual adviser to people of every class, including Pope Pius IX and King Ferdinand II of Naples.

During the cholera epidemic in Naples in 1854 he kept caring for the dying, caught the disease and died. John Paul II beatified him in 1995.

Domenico Mazzarella was beatified in 1995.

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