Rome Newsroom, Sep 17, 2020 / 06:00 am
An Italian archbishop has opened the cause for beatification of a Capuchin friar and spiritual son of St. Padre Pio.
Br. Modestino da Pietrelcina, born Damiano Fucci, died on Aug. 14, 2011, at the age of 94, with "a reputation of holiness," Archbishop Franco Moscone of Manfredonia-Vieste-San Giovanni Rotondo said in his declaration opening the friar's cause, signed in late July.
Damiano was born in 1917 in Pietrelcina, the southern Italian town that was also Padre Pio's birthplace. Padre Pio knew Damiano's family, because he grew up knowing Damiano's mother, who was his neighbor.
When Padre Pio returned to Pietrelcina as a young man from 1908 to 1916 for health reasons, he would sometimes watch over Damiano's older brother, Antonio, while the child's parents worked in the fields.