Giovanni Antonio Farina
Italian bishop and canonized saint. (1803–1888)
Feast: 4 March (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
The Vatican record
- 3 April 2014 — Miracle through their intercession approved (decree list, 2014)
Who they were
Giovanni Antonio Farina was born in Gambellara, near Vicenza, on 11 January 1803, and ordained a priest in 1827. As a young priest in the poorest parish of Vicenza he founded the Teaching Sisters of St Dorothy, Daughters of the Sacred Hearts, to educate poor girls and care for the sick and forgotten; at his death they had 330 sisters in 48 houses.
Made Bishop of Vicenza in 1860, he gave away to the poor what would have paid for his installation, and travelled on foot or by mule to mountain villages that had never seen a bishop. He ordained the future Pope St Pius X. He died in Vicenza on 4 March 1888.
The miracles
An Ecuadorian religious sister — Italy (diocese of Treviso)
A sister from Ecuador was healed of a serious cancer that had spread. The Vatican's medical board, theologians and cardinals each found unanimously in favour in 2001.
A mother in childbirth — Andhra Pradesh, India — 2001
A birth in Andhra Pradesh, in the same year as his beatification, was examined as a miraculous delivery. On 14 April 2005 the medical board found it unanimously to be scientifically inexplicable. The Dicastery's summary does not describe the complication.
Why that counted as sanctity
The case of an Ecuadorian religious sister was examined by the Church's doctors and theologians and approved as a miracle on 7 July 2001, opening the way to beatification. The case of a mother in childbirth was examined by the Church's doctors and theologians and approved as a miracle on 3 April 2014, opening the way to canonisation. Canonisation followed on 23 November 2014 by Francis.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography of St Giovanni Antonio Farina, with both miracles
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Wikidata Q1525741 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Giovanni Antonio Farina (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.