CatholicSaints.Info

Saint Crispin of Viterbo

detail of a mural painting of Saint Crispin of Viterbo, artist unknown, c.1808; swiped from Wikimedia Commons Also known as

Crispinus of Viterbo
Crispinus von Viterbo
il Santorello
Kryspin z Viterbo
Peter Fioretti
Pietro Fioretti

Memorial

19 May

Profile

Son of Ubald and Marsha. His father died when Pietro was very young, and his mother consecrated the boy to the Blessed Virgin Mary when he was five years old. Pietro developed an early devotion to Our Lady, calling her his other mother, and displayed such a simple and honest piety that led his neighbors to call him il Santorello (the little saint). He worked as a shoemaker for the uncle who provided for his education.

The sight of a procession of Friars Minor Capuchin woke within Pietro the realization that he was called to religious life. He became a Franciscan lay brother on 22 July 1693, taking the name Crispin because of his craft. Worked as a cook at the Viterbo Capuchin monastery. Transferred to, and worked tirelessly at, Capuchin houses in Tolfa, Rome, and Albano Laziale. He developed a devotion to, and modelled himself after Saint Felix of Cantalice.

Crispin’s simple, humble holiness brought many local lay people to him for spiritual guidance. As word of his wisdom spread, his visitors became priests, then bishops, then cardinals, and even a pope. Crispin was noted for paying little attention to the rank or status of a visitor, either high or low, but concentrating on talking to them all as equal children of the same God. Reputed to work miracles, heal by touch, and prophesy.

Born

13 November 1668 at Viterbo, Italy as Pietro Fioretti

Died

19 May 1750 of pneumonia at the friary of the Immaculate Conception on the Via Veneto in Rome, Italy
entombed under a side altar in the Capuchin church at Rome
body found still incorrupt in 1959