Saint Who?
Saints Who Could Read Souls
Blessed Anthony Grassi
Priest († 1671) Feast: December 13
“The greater the malady he cures, the greater the glory of the Physician.” Vincenzo Grassi was born in Fermo, Italy, in 1592. He was educated by the Oratorian Fathers, and received spiritual direction from a priest who had known Philip Neri personally. A fine student—known as a “walking dictionary” of Scripture and theology—he entered the Oratory at seventeen, taking the name Anthony, and was ordained a priest at twenty-five.
He cherished a devotion to Our Lady of Loreto. While praying at her shrine one day, he was struck by lightning. He expected to die. But not only did he survive; he also was healed of indigestion which had plagued him.
Anthony spent most of his life as a priest in Fermo, where he became known as a peacemaker and a servant of the poor. And he was a beloved confessor, attentive to penitents and concise and practical in his words to them, who by his own admission did not know how to be severe. He was helped in this by his ability to read consciences. As he aged, his physical impairments made it difficult and finally impossible for him to preach or hear confessions. But he surrendered in peace, rejoicing to die as a “son of Saint Philip.”
Heavenly Father, through the prayers of
Blessed Anthony Grassi, give priests the grace
of understanding and compassion
in the sacrament of confession.
