Blessed Ludovico Morbioli November 9

 Blessed Ludovico Morbioli

Also known as

• Ludovico of Bologna

• Luis, Louis, Luigi

Additional Memorial

17 November (diocese of Bologna, Italy)

Profile

One of six children born to the lower middle class family of Francesco Antonio and Agnes Morbioli, Ludovico spent his early adulthood in a dissolute life that included gambling, violence and a lot of heavy drinking. Married to Lucia Tura. While living in Venice, Italy in 1462, Ludovico was struck with a serious but unspecified illness, and was cared for at the hospice run by the Canons Regular of Saint Savior. This brush with death led to a re-examinination of his life, a conversion experience, and a determination to do penance for his earlier life. From then on he wandered the streets, preaching penance, and living in complete poverty. He carried a staff with a crucifix, and always a plain gray shirt or a white shirt with a cross on the chest, which led many to associate him with the Carmelites, though he was never a member of any religious order. He returned to Bologna, Italy in 1470 and continued his life as a street preacher there. He wandered through Modena and Ferrara, Italy, preaching; people would gather around him to mock him as he looked like a wild man with wild hair and unkempt beard, but then his preaching would keep them listening. He finally returned to Bologna to spend his remaining in the basement of Palazzo Lupari, which he fitted out like a monk‘s cell; it was later converted to an oratory. Blessed John Baptist Spagnuolo wrote a poem about his life.

Born

1433 in Bologna, Papal States (in modern Italy)

Died

• 9 November 1485 in Bologna, Papal States (in modern Italy) of natural causes

• interred in the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Bologna, but his relics have since been lost

Beatified

24 October 1843 by Pope Gregory XVI (cultus confirmation)