Bl. John Rainuzzi

John Rainuzzi was a fourteenth century Benedictine monk of Saint Margaret’s Monastery outside the city walls of Todi, Italy. By the mid-sixteenth century, his identity and reputation for holiness had long since faded from memory. Then, in 1568, as a priest was exorcising a possessed person who had been brought to the Monastery Church of Saint Margaret, the possessed individual shouted, “Here rests the body of Blessed John the Almsgiver!” This unusual incident, together with the lingering tradition that the body of a forgotten saint rested somewhere within the church, prompted a search of the edifice. Eventually a marble tomb was found, bearing John’s name with the appellation “Blessed,” and giving the date of his death. Further investigation led to the discovery of a medieval missal in one of Todi’s churches containing the following commemoration: “On day 8 of June, 1530 died Blessed John of Todi at the monastery of Saint Margaret, outside the gate of Todi, and he is buried there.” This evidence of an early local veneration of John Rainuzzi led the bishop of Todi to authorize a renewed veneration of him in his diocese.