Angelo da Furci

Angelo da Furci, known in English as Blessed Angelo of Furci, was an Italian priest and professed member of the Order of Saint Augustine (then commonly called the Hermits of Saint Augustine). He was born in 1246 in Furci, in the Abruzzo, at that time part of the Kingdom of Sicily. Later hagiographical tradition relates that his parents, said to have been of noble rank and named Adamo and Giovanna, had long remained childless. They are said to have made a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Saint Michael the Archangel on Monte Gargano to pray for a child, after which Angelo was born. As a boy he was placed with the Benedictines of the monastery of Cornaclano, where an uncle served as abbot, and there he received his first education in letters and in the religious life.

In his early adulthood, around the 1260s, he entered the Augustinian house at Vasto after hearing an Augustinian friar preach. He made religious profession and was ordained a priest. The order sent him to the University of Paris, then the principal centre of theological study in Latin Christendom, where he obtained a doctorate in theology. Returning to Italy, he taught theology in several cities and became known as a preacher and confessor. Notices of his life emphasize personal austerity, devotion to prayer, and a reputation for humility.

In 1281 the Augustinian province of the Kingdom of Naples elected him prior provincial; he was elected to the same office again in 1287. During this period Pope Honorius IV is reported to have wished to name him bishop of Acerra, an appointment Angelo declined, remaining in the ranks of his order. After his terms as provincial he withdrew to an Augustinian convent in Naples, where he continued to teach and to exercise a ministry of preaching and spiritual counsel.

He died in Naples on 6 February 1327 and was buried in the Augustinian church in that city, where a local cult grew up around his tomb. In the early nineteenth century, in the aftermath of the Napoleonic suppressions of religious houses, his relics were translated to his native Furci, where they are kept in the parish church and remain the focus of popular devotion. On 20 December 1888 Pope Leo XIII confirmed his ancient cult, an act equivalent to beatification. He is commemorated on 6 February and is honoured as the patron of Furci. He was never formally canonized and is therefore styled Blessed rather than Saint in the universal calendar of the Catholic Church.