St. Richard Pampuri
Posted on April 30, 2020 by admin No comments
Born: 2 August 1897 Trivolzio, Pavia, Kingdom of Italy
Died: 1 May 1930 in Milan, Italy of pleurisy, tuberculosis and pneumonia
Venerated: in Roman Catholic Church (Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God)
Beatified: 4 October 1981, Saint Peter’s Square, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II
Canonized: 1 November 1989, Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II
Feast: 1 May, 16 May (Pavia and Brescia)
Patronage: Trivolzio Military chaplains Nurses Doctors
Tenth of the eleven children born to Innocenzo and Angela Pampuri. His mother died of tuberculosis when Erminio was three, and he was raised by his maternal grandparents and an aunt. His father died in a traffic accident when Erminio was ten.
Though he wanted to become a missionary priest, one of the great influences on the boy was his uncle Carlo, a village doctor. When Erminio’s health proved to be too weak for the rigors of missionary work, he studied medicine at Pavia University. Franciscan tertiary, member of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, and involved in Catholic Action, he attended Mass daily while in school.
Drafted into the Italian army medical corps in World War I in 1917, Erminio was a sergeant; he spent his duty in field hospitals, sickened by the misery of war. He resumed his studies in 1920, and graduated at the top of his medical school class on 6 July 1921. Rural health officer in Morimondo in the Po Vally, a poor area near Milan, Italy. Secretary for his parish missionary society; he organized retreats for local laymen, and worked area youth. He treated the poor for free, coordinated charity drives for them, and founded the Band of Pius X, a group dedicated to medical care for the poor.
Feeling a call to religious life, Erminio joined the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God on 22 June 1927, taking the name Riccardo, and making his formal profession on 24 October 1928. He ran a free dental clinic for the Order in Brescia, treating those in need, and giving them money and food in the bargain if they needed it.