Tommaso Maria Fusco (1 December 1831 – 24 February 1891) was an Italian Roman Catholic

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

who established the Daughters of Charity of the Most Precious Blood.

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

beatified him in 2001 and his cause for sainthood still continues.

Life

Tommaso Maria Fusco was born on 1 December 1831 to Antonio Fusco and Stella Giordano as the seventh of eighth children. His mother died when he was six and his father when he was ten which led to his uncle Giuseppe adopting the children. In Nocera he commenced his studies for the priesthood in 1847 which also marked the death of his uncle. He was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

to the priesthood on 22 December 1855. Fusco served as a parish priest and opened a school in his own home. He became a member of the Congregation of the Missionaries of Nocera in 1857 and became a traveler in the south to preach. He also established the Priestly Society of the Catholic Apostolate as a means of supporting missions, and it was to receive the formal papal approval of

Pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX (; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in hist ...

in 1874. He then founded the Daughters of Charity of the Most Precious Blood on 6 January 1873 and served as a parish priest in Pagani from 1874 to 1887. He wrote a number of publications on a variety of different topics that included

moral theology Ethics involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior.''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy''"Ethics" A central aspect of ethics is "the good life", the life worth living or life that is simply satisfyin ...

. He died at the beginning of 1891.

Beatification

The cause for sainthood commenced on a local level and spanned from 2 April 1955 to 10 December 1957. However the formal introduction of the cause came on 31 July 1981. The

Positio A ''positio'' (short for the Latin ''positio super virtutibus'': "position on the virtues") is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a Catholic person is declared Venerable, the second of four steps on the path to can ...

was sent to the

Congregation for the Causes of Saints In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, passi ...

so that the latter could evaluate whether he lived a life of

heroic virtue Heroic virtue is the translation of a phrase coined by Augustine of Hippo to describe the virtue of early Christian martyrs. The phrase is used by the Roman Catholic Church. The Greek pagan term hero described a person with possibly superhuman a ...

approved this and declared him to be

Venerable ''The Venerable'' often shortened to Venerable is a style, title, or epithet used in some Christianity, Christian churches. The title is often accorded to holy persons for their spiritual perfection and wisdom. Catholic In the Catholic Churc ...

on 7 July 2001, and he beatified him on 7 October 2001.

References

External links

Hagiography CircleSaints SQPNTommaso Maria Fusco
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fusco, Tommaso Maria 1831 births 1891 deaths Italian beatified people Founders of Catholic religious communities Beatifications by Pope John Paul II 19th-century venerated Christians Venerated Catholics by Pope John Paul II