Pius of Saint Aloysius

Blessed Pius of Saint Aloysius was born Luigi Campidelli on 29 April 1868 in Trebbio, a rural hamlet of Poggio Berni in the province of Rimini, in the Romagna region of the Kingdom of Italy. He was the fourth of six children of Giuseppe Campidelli and Filomena Belmonti, a family of modest tenant farmers. His father died in 1874, when Luigi was still a small child, after which the boy helped his mother with work in the fields while remaining closely attached to parish life. Accounts gathered for his later cause describe him as obedient, prayerful, and drawn early to the sacraments and to serving at Mass.

In his early teens he encountered the Passionists, the congregation founded in the eighteenth century by Saint Paul of the Cross and dedicated to meditation on the Passion of Christ. Attracted by their way of life, he entered their community and in 1883 received the religious habit together with the name Pius of Saint Aloysius, in honor of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga. He made his profession of vows the following year and began the studies that were intended to lead to priestly ordination. Fellow religious later testified to his gentleness, his fidelity to the Passionist rule, and his devotion to the Eucharist and to the Passion.

His health failed in 1889 when he contracted tuberculosis. He was never ordained. He died on 2 November 1889 at the Passionist house of San Vito, in the province of Forlì, at the age of twenty-one. Those who attended him in his last illness reported that he accepted his sufferings with patience.

A reputation for holiness attached to his memory among the Passionists and the people of Romagna. He was later declared Venerable, and on 17 November 1985 Pope John Paul II beatified him in Saint Peter's Square. He has not been canonized. His feast is observed on 2 November, the anniversary of his death. He is remembered especially within the Passionist congregation as an example of a young professed religious who completed a short life in fidelity to his vows.