At Rome, Saint Charles of Sezze, religious of the Order of Friars Minor, who, compelled from childhood to earn his daily bread, led his companions to the imitation of Christ and the saints; and at last, as he had longed, clothed in the Franciscan habit, he gave himself to adoration before the Most Blessed Sacrament of the altar.
Lifespan: 1613–1670
Beatified: 22 January 1882 by Pope Leo XIII
Canonized: 12 April 1959 by Pope John XXIII, Vatican Basilica
Memoria liturgica: 6 January
Blessed be God! Blessed be God! Blessed be God!
Born Giancarlo Marchionne at Sezze (Latina) on 19 October 1613 to peasant parents, he spent his early years as a shepherd and farmhand.
At the age of seventeen he made a vow of chastity in honour of the Blessed Virgin, and shortly afterwards entered the Order of Friars Minor as Brother Carlo, where he served as cook, doorkeeper, and questor. Despite his limited schooling, he possessed the gift of infused knowledge and was sought out by Popes as a counsellor, distinguishing himself above all by his humility and by the way he united deep contemplation with concrete works of charity.
He lived in numerous convents of Lazio, fulfilling the humble offices of cook, doorkeeper, questor, and sacristan. Yet his extraordinary gifts of knowledge, far exceeding what his formal education could account for, enabled him to produce a substantial body of ascetical and literary works.
He served as a counsellor to Popes Alexander VII and Clement IX.
He died in 1670 and was numbered among the saints in 1959. He is venerated as the patron of Sezze and of the Diocese of Latina-Terracina-Sezze-Priverno.