St. Egidius Maria of Saint Joseph

St. Egidius Maria of Saint Joseph was born Francesco Antonio Pontillo on 16 November 1729 at Taranto in southern Italy, of a poor family, and worked for a time as a rope-maker to support his widowed mother. Drawn to the religious life, he entered the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor as a lay brother about 1754, taking the name Egidius, and spent most of his life at the friary of Saint Paschal in Naples.

For some fifty years he served in the humble office of porter and questor, begging alms through the streets of Naples for his community and distributing them to the poor, so that he became known and loved throughout the city as "the Consoler of Naples." Behind his simple labors lay a soul of deep prayer, joy, and charity, and he was sought out by all classes for his counsel and his prayers. He died in Naples on 7 February 1812 and was canonized in 1996. His memory is kept on 7 February.