May 19: Saint Crispin of Viterbo, Capuchin Friar Minor

Beggar for God 

“The power of God creates us, wisdom governs us, mercy saves us”. This is what Friar Crispin of Viterbo repeated to those he met. A simple lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, assigned to soliciting alms on behalf of the Order, serving the sick and taking care of the convent garden, Friar Crispin (Pietro) Fioretti was born in Viterbo on November 13, 1668. His father, Ubaldo Fioretti, had married Marzia, who was already a widow with a daughter. Crispino soon lost his father and his uncle Francesco took care of him, sending him to attend the school run by the Jesuits. Crispino also worked as an apprentice shoemaker in his uncle's shop.

Until the age of 25, he remained in the service of the shop, then, he wished to enter the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. On July 22, 1693, he was received into the Order as a lay brother in the convent of Palanzana in Viterbo and, the following year, he made his religious profession. As a religious, he chose the name of Crispin because he was the Patron Saint of shoemakers. From 1694 to 1697 he lived in the convent of Tolfa, later transferring to Albano for six years. He spent another six years in the convent of Monterotondo and, from 1709, he moved to Orvieto where he lived for almost forty years, except for a brief period in Bassano Romano in 1715 and in Rome from May to October 1744. Up to 1710 he was the convent gardener, and later he was charged for the solicitation of alms. As he wandered around the city and the countryside begging, he dispensed pearls of spiritual wisdom. Often, to instill courage, he would say: “Divine Providence thinks much more than we do.” When asked how he could feed so many friars with the alms from begging alone, Crispino replied that he didn’t worry about anything, that God, Our Lady and Saint Francis took care of it. He was very devoted to the Virgin Mary, to whom he dedicated small altars which he built wherever he could. He saved many abandoned newborn babies, taking them to the nearest hospitals. Once he found a child outside the door of the convent; he took care of him all his life and nicknamed him Crispinello. In the footsteps of Saint Francis of Assisi, he loved to listen to the singing of birds, which he considered as praise for the Virgin Mary by creation itself. He was known as a great miracle worker, so much so that when people saw him on the streets they approached him to cut pieces of cloth from his habit to keep them as relics. He avoided this by saying that only Saint Francis performs miracles.

He never had very good health, so in 1748 he was stricken ill and taken to the infirmary of the Capuchin Friars Minor in Rome. At his bedside, his brother Friars seeing he was about to die told him to prepare himself. It was May 18, but he reassured them that he would not die that day so as not to “disturb the feast of Saint Felix” of Cantalice. In fact, Crispin died on May 19, 1750. Pope John Paul II canonized him on June 20, 1982.