Padre Gaetano Catanoso
Born: February 14, 1879
Died: April 4, 1963
Feast day: April 4
Patron saint of: chaplains
The previous fall, on Oct. 23, 2005, a cousin of mine, Padre Gaetano Catanoso, had been named a saint by Pope Benedict XVI in his first canonization ceremony. I was there with my family, along with tens of thousands of others. Now I was waiting outside the office of Dr. Giuseppe Bolignano, the hospital’s chief of infectious diseases. I was researching the life of my sanctified relative, and I had some questions for the doctor.
In January 2003 Dr. Bolignano had determined that Anna Pangallo, a comatose villager stricken with bacterial meningitis, could not be revived after days of antibiotics. The doctor advised the family to prepare for the 55-year-old woman’s death.
Instead, scores Anna’s loved ones began a round-the-clock prayer vigil in Reggio and her mountaintop village of Roccaforte del Greco. Their urgent prayers went only to the beatified Padre Gaetano, already credited by the Vatican with interceding for one healing miracle shortly after his death in 1963. When Anna rose from her coma after nine days, when a stunned Dr. Bolignano could not explain why she had recovered so thoroughly, when her medical records were fully scrutinized by Vatican officials, Padre Gaetano was credited with a second miracle, ensuring his eventual elevation to sainthood.
More about Padre Gaetano Catanoso:
All in the family
A journalist tries to get the real scoop on his cousin the saint.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
