St. Nicholas of Tolentino

St. Nicholas of Tolentino (c. 1245 – 10 September 1305) was born at Sant'Angelo in Pontano in the Italian Marches, an answer to his parents' prayers at the shrine of St. Nicholas of Myra, whose name he bore. As a young man he entered the Order of Saint Augustine and was ordained a priest, spending most of his life at Tolentino, where he labored for some three decades as a tireless preacher, confessor, and comforter of the sick and the poor.

He was known for his gentleness, his nightly rounds among the needy and the imprisoned, and his ardent devotion to praying for the souls in Purgatory, on whose behalf he offered many Masses — a devotion for which he is especially invoked as their patron. Numerous miracles were attributed to him, including the blessing of small breadrolls marked with a cross (the "Bread of St. Nicholas") given to the sick. He was the first Augustinian friar to be canonized, by Pope Eugene IV in 1446.