Nicola Saggio

The Vatican record

• 3 April 2014 — Miracle through their intercession approved (decree list, 2014)

Who they were

Giovanni Battista Clemente Saggio was born on 6 January 1650 in Longobardi, a small town on the Calabrian coast, the son of a farm worker and a spinner. He joined the Minims, the order of St Francis of Paola, as a lay brother, taking the name Nicola, and spent his life in humble work, as porter, sacristan, gardener and keeper of the tower clock, in Rome and elsewhere.

In January 1709, when Rome feared being sacked again, he offered his life for the Church and the city. He died in Rome a few weeks later, on 3 February 1709.

The miracles

Two miracles were approved for his beatification by decree of 2 April 1786. The fall from the scaffold, more than two centuries later, was the miracle for his canonisation.

Why that counted as sanctity

Beatification followed on 17 September 1786 by Pius VI. The case of a young builder from Longobardi 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.