Giacomo Bianconi
Giacomo Bianconi (7 March 1220 – 22 August 1301) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Order of Preachers. Bianconi — who hailed from Umbria — joined the order in his adolescence and dedicated his pastoral career to his flock and on one notable occasion aided refugees when Frederick II sacked the area in 1248. He also combatted heresies and managed to convert one of their chief propagators while also distinguishing himself through his life of extreme poorness that went past the Dominican standards.
The difficult road to sainthood commenced under Pope Paul V in 1608 and was stalled several times until Pope Urban VIII decided to preside over the beatification in 1641 - the process had failed then and the pontiff's death exacerbated the prospect of the process never facing completion. It reopened one final time and allowed - on 18 May 1672 - for Pope Clement X to confirm Bianconi's beatification on the recognition of the late priest's local 'cultus' - or popular veneration.
Patron saint of Mevania
In the Martyrology
- August 22 Blessed Giacomo Bianconi, Dominican priest