Gaetano Errico

Gaetano Errico was born on 19 October 1791 in Secondigliano, then a town near Naples in the Kingdom of Naples, the second of nine children of Pasquale Errico and Maria Marseglia. His father ran a modest pasta workshop and his mother worked as a weaver. From childhood he showed a strong religious inclination and a desire for the priesthood. After formation in the seminary of Naples he was ordained a priest on 23 September 1815 by Cardinal Luigi Ruffo Scilla, Archbishop of Naples, and was assigned to pastoral work in his native Secondigliano, where he spent virtually his entire ministry.

As a priest he became known as a tireless confessor, a preacher, and a visitor of the sick and the poor. He promoted devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, to Our Lady of Sorrows, and to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Accounts preserved by his congregation relate that around 1818 he had a vision of Saint Alphonsus Liguori indicating that God willed the foundation of a new religious family, and that he later understood himself called to establish a community dedicated to the Sacred Hearts. Political unrest in southern Italy and the need for ecclesiastical approval delayed the project for many years.

In 1836 he founded the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a clerical institute devoted to missionary work, the formation of priests, and the spread of devotion to the Sacred Hearts. He served as its first superior while continuing parish duties. Members lived a life of prayer, penance, and apostolic work among ordinary people. Contemporaries regarded him as a priest of austere personal habits and notable charity. He remained in Secondigliano through the political upheavals of the mid-nineteenth century.

He died in Secondigliano on 29 October 1860. His remains are kept in the church of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in that town. The cause for his canonization advanced in the twentieth century. Pope John Paul II beatified him on 14 April 2002, and Pope Benedict XVI canonized him on 12 October 2008. The Catholic Church commemorates him on 29 October. The Missionaries of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary continue his work in several countries.