Saint Nicholas of Tolentino

Priest and Confessor
(1245–1305)

Saint Nicholas of Tolentino was born around 1245 at Sant'Angelo in Pontano in the Marches of Italy, the long-awaited child of parents who had made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Nicholas of Bari and named their son in honour of the saint through whose intercession they believed he had been given to them. From his earliest years he was marked by an intensity of prayer and mortification unusual even for the pious households of medieval Italy, spending long hours in the village church and already fasting rigorously as a young boy.

He entered the Augustinian Order and was ordained a priest. After serving in various houses of his order he was sent in 1275 to the town of Tolentino, where he remained for the last thirty years of his life, and which has ever since been identified with his name. As a parish priest he combined an extraordinary life of prayer and penance with a tireless apostolate of preaching, confessing, and caring for the poor and sick.

He had a particular mission to the dying and to the souls in purgatory, and he was credited with countless miraculous cures of those who came to him sick or near death. He visited the prisons of Tolentino regularly and ministered to those condemned to death with great compassion. His life of fasting was so severe that he sometimes went for days without eating, and his superiors had to intervene to prevent him from destroying his health entirely.

In his last illness he was commanded by his superior to eat, and in obedience he ate the bread that was brought to him, which he blessed with the sign of the cross. This bread, blessed by Nicholas of Tolentino, became famous for its healing properties, and the tradition of distributing blessed bread as a sacramental at his feast continues in many places to this day. He died on September 10, 1305, and was canonised by Eugene IV in 1446. His feast is celebrated on September 10th.