Dominic Barberi

Dominic Barberi was born Domenico Barberi on 22 June 1792 at Viterbo in the Papal States. His parents died while he was still a child, and he was brought up by a maternal uncle, spending his youth as a shepherd and farm labourer. Though his early schooling was limited, he showed marked intelligence and piety. In 1814 he entered the Congregation of the Passion, taking the religious name Dominic of the Mother of God. He was ordained priest in 1818. For many years thereafter he taught philosophy and theology in Passionist houses in Italy and later served in Rome as a consultor to Roman congregations, including work connected with the Congregation of the Index.

From early in his religious life he believed himself called to labour for the return of England to Catholic communion, a conviction he linked to an interior inspiration in youth. He studied English and maintained correspondence with English Catholics. After long delays he was sent north of the Alps in 1840 and founded a Passionist house at Ere in Belgium. In 1841 he crossed to England, and in 1842 he opened the first Passionist community in that country at Aston Hall in Staffordshire. From Aston he preached parish missions, ministered to the poor and to Irish immigrant Catholics, and sought the reconciliation of Anglicans with the Catholic Church.

His best-known pastoral act was the reception of John Henry Newman into the Catholic Church at Littlemore near Oxford on 9 October 1845, together with several companions of the Oxford Movement. He also received other notable converts. Those who met him, Newman among them, remarked on his imperfect English and unpolished manner, but also on his humility, fervour, and evident holiness. He continued to found or serve Passionist houses and to travel widely on missionary work in England and Belgium.

In late August 1849, while travelling by train from London toward the Midlands, he was taken ill after leaving the train near Pangbourne and died the same day, 27 August 1849, at Reading in Berkshire. He was buried in England; his remains are now at the Church of St Anne and Blessed Dominic in Sutton, St Helens, which became a place of pilgrimage. Pope Paul VI beatified him on 27 October 1963. He has not been canonized. The Passionists and the Church in England commemorate him on 26 August.