Pio Alberto Del Corona
Italian Roman Catholic bishop and writer (1837-1912)
Feast: 15 August (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
The Vatican record
- 9 October 2013 — Heroic virtue declared — title Venerable (decree list, 2013)
- 17 September 2014 — Miracle through their intercession approved (decree list, 2014)
Who they were
Pio Alberto Del Corona was born in Livorno on 5 July 1837. As a teenager he joined the St Vincent de Paul Society to help poor families, and met its founder, Blessed Frédéric Ozanam. He became a Dominican at San Marco in Florence and was ordained in 1860, and founded the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Spirit to study Scripture and give free education to working-class families.
From 1874 he served the diocese of San Miniato, becoming its bishop in 1897; people greeted his visits as a feast. Failing sight and health led him to step down, and he spent his last years with his fellow friars at Fiesole, where he died on 15 August 1912.
The miracles
A religious sister — Livorno, Italy — October 1926
A sister of about 23 developed severe abdominal pain, vomiting and nausea, then jaundice; she was diagnosed with gallstone inflammation of the gallbladder, which in those days before antibiotics could only be treated with tonics, and she grew steadily worse. In October 1926 she knelt before an image of Bishop Del Corona and asked his intercession. At once she felt her strength, colour and normal bodily functions return. Medical checks straight afterwards, and again some twenty years later, confirmed she was completely healed.
Why that counted as sanctity
The case of a religious sister was examined by the Church's doctors and theologians and approved as a miracle on 17 September 2014, opening the way to beatification.
Connected on this site
- Vincent de Paul Saint“As a teenager he joined the St Vincent de Paul Society to help poor families, and met its founder, Blessed Frédéric Ozanam.” — this site's research
- Frédéric Ozanam Blessed“As a teenager he joined the St Vincent de Paul Society to help poor families, and met its founder, Blessed Frédéric Ozanam.” — this site's research
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography of Blessed Pio Alberto Del Corona, with the miracle
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Wikidata Q18071705 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Pio Alberto del Corona (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.