St. Gaspar del Bufalo

Who they were

Gaspar del Bufalo was a Roman priest, baptized on Epiphany with all three Magi's names, whose spine showed early. When Napoleon demanded the oath of allegiance from the Roman clergy, Gaspar refused to his face and spent four years in prisons and exile for it.

Freed, he founded the Missionaries of the Precious Blood in 1815 and accepted the assignment every sensible cleric had declined: the bandit country of the papal states' southern hills, where brigand bands ruled whole districts and the government's answer was soldiers. Gaspar walked in and preached. Mission after mission in the outlaw towns, confessional marathons, a crucifix held out to men everyone else addressed through a musket, and the documented result was surrenders, conversions, and whole bands dissolved by sermon. His devotion gathered at one point, the Blood of Christ, poured out and therefore excluding nobody. He died in Rome in 1837, worn out by a cholera year, and was canonized in 1954. His commemoration is now 21 October; older calendars list 2 January.

Why people turn to St. Gaspar del Bufalo

Everyone assigned the territory nobody wants: the tough parish, the hostile account, the family member the rest have written off, with St. Luigi Orione and St. Dulce Lopes Pontes. And Precious Blood parishes and devotees.

How to ask their intercession

Before walking into the room others avoid, ask for his entrance: crucifix first, and no weapon behind your back.