Ludovico Sabbatini

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Venerable Ludovico Sabbatini (30th August 1650, Naples, Italy; 11 June 1724, Naples) was an Italian priest and religious educator, who was beatified by the Catholic Church in 1765. He is venerated on 11th June, the day of his death.

Born to a deeply religious family (one of his sisters was a nun, and three other brothers were priests), at a very young age Sabbatini dedicated himself to a religious life. He involved himself with the Congregazione dei Pii Operai (Congregation of Pious Workers), teaching religion to the children of the poor and manual laborers of Naples and helping perform mass at the Chiesa de San Nicola alla Caritá. In this church he was in charge of the so-called Congregazione dei Figlioli (Congregation of Sons).

He was ordained a priest at age 24 and soon began to teach at the religious academies of San Giorgio Maggiore and Santa Maria ai Monte. In 1684 he founded a monastery near the Santissima Annunziata hospital, for wayward young women who wished to take religious orders.

In 1687, Father Sabbatini moved to Rome in order to promote the Congregation of Pious Workers in the Papal States. From that point, Sabbatini involved himself in many benevolent activities with the poor and ill in hospitals and prisons, as well as aiding Jews. Some miraculous cures where attributed to him. [1]. He was widely admired for his goodness. Nevertheless, he continued working as a teacher, at the Collegio dei Catecumini, where he founded an academy of dogma and exegesis.

Returning to Naples in 1699, he was elected general provost (Preposito Generale) of the Congregazione. For 25 years, he also directed the Congregazione dei Dottori e Cavalieri at San Giorgio Maggiore.