Bl. James Salomone

  Posted on June 3, 2019  by admin  No comments

Born: 1231 at Venice, Italy

Died: 31 March 1314 of cancer at Forli, Italy

Beatified: 1526 by Pope Clement VII

Patronage: against cancer, cancer patients

Born to the nobility, and an only child. His father died when James was very small, his mother left the family to become a Cistercian nun, and James was raised by his grandmother. Tutored by a Cistercian monk who taught the boy to meditate. When he came of age, he became a Dominican at Santa Maria Celeste in Venice, Italy.

On his way to the monastery he gave away his money to the poor he met on the way, keeping only enough to buy books; on arrival, he found a lay-brother in need of clothes; he gave the man the rest of his money, and entered empty-handed. Dominican for 66 years, holding offices in several houses in and around Venice. When word got out about his gift for spiritual direction, he feared the notoriety, and tried to withdraw from public life, transferring to the house in Forli, Italy, a place noted for its poverty and strict observance. Worked with the sick, heard confessions by the hour, and gave away everything that came to hand. Noted healer with hundreds of miraculous cures attributed to his intervention.