This Patron of the Universal Church was born in 1245, in answer to the prayer of a holy mother, and was vowed before his birth to the service of God. His parents had made a pilgrimage across Italy to visit the shrine of Saint Nicholas of Myre and ask his intercession to obtain a child; the infant granted them was given the same name in his honor.
Saint Nicholas of Tolentino never lost his baptismal innocence. His austerities as a very young religious were conspicuous even in the austere Order … [More]