Caspar del Bufalo

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Saint Gaspar del Bufalo
Born	January 6, 1786, Rome
Died	December 28, 1837, Rome
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Canonized	June 12, 1954 by Pius XII
Feast	October 21
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Gaspar del Bufalo (1786-1837) (also known as Gaspare del Bufalo) was a Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the religious order Missionaries of the Precious Blood.

1 Life
2 Veneration
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Life

He was born in Rome, the son of a cook who was employed by the Altieri family, whose palace was across from the church of the Gesù in Rome. Especially through the influence of his mother, Annunziata,he became greatly deovted to St. Francis Xavier, a relic of which saint is prominently displayed on an altar of the Gesù. He was ordained to the priesthood in the diocese of Rome in 1808. Along with the other clergy who refused to take the oath of allegiance to Napoleon Bonaparte in 1808 after the deportation of Pope Pius VII, he was sent into exile to northern Italy. Upon his return to Rome in 1814, he considered joining the Jesuits, who had recently been reestablished, but, in view of the needs of the time and in response to Pius VII, he engaged in the ministry of preaching and founded, facing considerable difficulties, a society of priests to carry on his work, the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, at the abbey of San Felice in Giano, Umbria, in 1815.

Until his death on December 28, 1837, he worked tirelessly to re-evangelize central Italy, especially the Papal States. He was well known for his eloquence in preaching, his devotion to the poor (especially the Santa Galla Hospice in Rome), and his work with the brigands of southern Lazio.

His missionary efforts were extremely dramatic. One contemporary, the Passionist priest and bishop St.Vincent Strambi, described his preaching as being "like a spiritual earthquake". He was also a friend of St. Vincent Pallotti, founder of the Pallotines, who assisted at Gaspar's deathbed. He is particularly known for his devotion to the Precious Blood of Christ and for spreading the devotion during his lifetime.

He had a significant influence on St. Maria De Mattias, foundress of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ (A.S.C.), although it was C.PP.S. Missionary Venerable John Merlini who was most directly associated with St. Maria in establishing her congregation.

He had gave his last mission in Rome at the Chiesa Nuova in 1837. Although in ill health, he returned to Rome from the Missionaries' house in Albano in the fall of 1837 to minister to the sick during the cholera outbreak. He returned to Albano but returned again at the suggestion of Cardinal Franzoni, the cardinal protector of the Congregation, in December 1837. He died in an apartment in the Teatro di Marcello on December 28, 1837.

His funeral was held in Rome at the church of Sant'Angelo in Pescheria, near the Teatro di Marcello, and he was buried in Albano. Later his body was transferred to the house of the Missionaries on the Via dei Crociferi in Rome (Santa Maria in Trivio), where it remains today.