Today, June 1, is the memorial of St. Hannibal Maria di Francia.
Founder of the Rogationists and the Daughters of Divine Zeal.
Born in 1851 in Messina, Italy, Hannibal was the third of four children of Francis the Marquises of Saint Catherine of Jonio, a Papal Vice-Consul, a knight, and Honorary Captain of the Navy. His mother was Anna Toscano, an Italian aristocrat. His father died when Hannibal was 15 months old.
The boy developed a devotion to the Eucharist and the Virgin Mary. He was permitted to receive Holy Communion every day– in those days, that was rare. At age 17, while in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, he received a call to religious life, “the revelation of Rogate.”
After he was ordained priest, he immediately moved into the Avignone ghetto, one of the poorest places he could find, and began a life’s work with the poor. In 1882 he founded the Anthonian Orphanages, so-called because they were under the patronage of Saint Anthony of Padua; they were noted for their operation as an extended family.
Part of his expansion plans was to serve the poor better and more efficiently. He founded The Daughters of Divine Zeal in 1887, and The Rogationists in 1897. Both were canonically approved in August 1926.
His acts of charity and virtuous life was such an example and inspiration to many that even during his lifetime, Hannibal was already considered a saint. Hannibal was, by all accounts, a true servant of the people.
He died of natural causes in 1927. Before his death, Hannibal was granted a comforting vision of the Blessed Virgin. He was beatified in 1990 by Pope St. John Paul II. The same pope canonized Hannibal in 2004.