Salvatore Micalizzi

Salvatore Micalizzi (5 November 1856 - 14 October 1937) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Congregation of the Mission in his desire to follow in the footsteps of Saint Vincent de Paul. Micalizzi served as a preacher and became a well-known evangelizer in Naples.
Micalizzi's beatification process commenced in 1957 and he became titled as a Servant of God until Pope Benedict XVI named him as Venerable on 16 December 2006.

Salvatore Micalizzi was born in Naples on 5 November 1856 as the eldest of six children to Vincenzo Micalizzi and Elisabetta De Martino. Micalizzi and his siblings were born into his father's second marriage after the latter was widowed and moved from Palermo to Naples. His father died in 1865 during a cholera outbreak (in which he too was a victim but recovered) and he was forced to provide for his mother and siblings due to being the firstborn; his mother later died in 1874. He then entered the care of his mother's cousin.

He completed his education at the age of seventeen in the same school that the Servant of God Pasquale Attari (1837-1893) ran for men who were considering the ecclesiastical path. He commenced his studies for the priesthood sometime around 1876 and was vested in the habit of the seminarian for the first time which he received from Rev. Riccardi. He went on a spiritual retreat on 30 July 1876.

Micalizzi was ordained to the priesthood on 23 September 1882 in the Cathedral of Naples - he received his entrance into the priesthood from the Archbishop of Naples Guglielmo Sanfelice d'Acquavilla. He served as a parish priest in Naples until 1884. Micalizzi entered the Congregation of the Mission in Naples on 24 May 1884 and made his perpetual vows on 25 May 1886 where he also pledged his total commitment and obedience to God. He preached numerous missions and had a particular interest in the ongoing formation of priests.

His prowess as a priest even reached Pope Pius X who even wanted Micalizzi to relocate to Rome to serve as his counselor and the pontiff received Micalizzi in a private audience four times during his pontificate.

The priest returned to Naples in October 1918 from missions he conducted in Lecce since 1911. His declining health in 1922 obliged him to cease his missions and return to Naples where he served as an apt confessor; his confessional was bombarded due to a great number of people who wanted to confess to him in particular and he remained in the booth for almost 12 hours each time he was there. He held a session of the Spiritual Exercises on 6 October 1937 - a week before his death.

Micalizzi felt unwell on 10 October 1937 and was told to go to bed in order to recuperate. He died in the morning of 14 October 1937 and was discovered at 4:30am when his attendant found him dead on his knees beside his bed. The news of his death spread across Naples which prompted hundreds to attend his 15 October funeral; he was exhumed on 25 February 1958 while his remains were relocated on 3 July 1958 and deposited into their current resting place the following 9 July.

The beatification process commenced on 23 February 1957 - under Pope Pius XII - in an informative process that the Archbishop of Naples Cardinal Marcello Mimmi opened; he closed it in 1960. Interrogatories and documentation on the life and holiness of Micalizzi were all accumulated during the process and sent in boxes to the Congregation of Rites in Rome. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints validated the process on 5 July 1985.

The Positio was delivered to the C.C.S. in 1998 at which point the latter would transfer it over to professional consultants for their own assessment. Theologians voiced their approval to the contents of the dossier on 14 June 2005 while the C.C.S. did likewise on 3 October 2006.

Micalizzi was titled as Venerable on 16 December 2006 after Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged that the late priest had lived a model life of heroic virtue that could be held up as an appropriate example for the faithful.

The miracle needed for his beatification was investigated in Naples due to the cure of an individual dating 1998. The C.C.S. validated the process on 20 October 2000 while a medical board voted on it on 27 October 2010. But the board could not come to a conclusive verdict so nominated the miracle to be discussed at a later date; the board - on 16 January 2014 - voted in favor of the miracle.

The current postulator that is assigned to the cause is Rev. Shijo Kanjirathamkunnel.