Overview
- He is honored on May 20 in the Catholic santoral as an influential Franciscan preacher devoted to the name of Jesus.
- Born in 1380 in Italy, he entered the Order of Friars Minor at about 22 and set out on a life of itinerant preaching.
- He drew large crowds in city squares across Italy, calling for charity, social justice, civic peace, and a rejection of usury.
- He promoted the IHS monogram, a shorthand for the name of Jesus often shown inside a radiant sun, which spread widely in Catholic devotion.
- He died in 1444 in L’Aquila and was canonized in 1450 by Pope Nicholas V, and he is now regarded as the patron of publicists and communicators.