Giovanni Merlini
The Vatican record
- 23 May 2024 — Miracle through their intercession approved (decree list, 2024)
Who they were
Giovanni Merlini was born in 1795 and became a priest of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, after a retreat preached by their founder, St Gaspar del Bufalo, later serving as its Moderator General. He preached missions in the Pontine marshes and along the coast, where resistance to the Papal States ran high.
A man of habitual contemplative prayer, he died on 12 January 1873.
The miracles
A man of 69 — Benevento, Italy — January 2015
A man born in 1946 in Benevento, with Marfan syndrome, an artificial aortic valve and permanent atrial fibrillation, developed from 2013 severe bleeding in the gut and anaemia from his blood-thinning treatment, then a large haematoma, kidney failure and severe heart failure; repeated transfusions did not help. His niece, who went to a parish run by the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, got the family praying to Father Merlini. From 16 January 2015, after a holy card with a relic was placed in his bed, his condition turned suddenly and inexplicably for the better, and he came out of danger of death.
Why that counted as sanctity
The case of a man of 69 was examined by the Church's doctors and theologians and approved as a miracle on 23 May 2024, opening the way to beatification.
Connected on this site
- Gaspar del Bufalo Saint“Giovanni Merlini was born in 1795 and became a priest of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, after a retreat preached by their founder, St Gaspar del Bufalo, later serving as its Moderator General.” — this site's research
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography of Blessed Giovanni Merlini, with the miracle
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Not yet in Wikidata. Name as the Vatican spells it.
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.