Saint of the Day – 16 April – Blessed Arcangelo Canetoli CRSSB (1460-1513) Priest.and Canon of the Canons Regular of the Congregation of the Most Holy Saviour at Bologna, Mystic gifted with the charism of prophecy and of many visions of the Blessed Virgin, Born in 1460 in Bologna, Italy and died on 16 April 1513 (aged 53) in Gubbio, Italy of natural causes. His body is incorrupt. Arcangelo was Beatified on 2 October 1748 by Pope Benedict XIV.
Arcangelo Canetoli, born in Bologna in 1460, suffered the bitter vicissitudes of the rivalry between the Canetoli and the Bentivoglio families. When still a young child, he providentially survived the extermination of the entire family.
As a young man he entered the Canons Regular of Santa Maria di Reno, known as “Renani.” Due to his extreme humility and love of solitude he refused, for a long time, any Ecclesiastical dignity and only out of obedience, did he accept Priestly Ordination.
From 1498 he lived in the convent of Sant’Ambrogio di Gubbio, loved and venerated by the humble and the powerful, including the Acquisti of Arezzo and the Medici of Florence.
He consistently refused the appointment as Archbishop of the Medici City proposed to him by Pope Leo X. He died on 16 April 1513 and his incorrupt body is still venerated in his Monastery in Gubbio.
Arcangelo was born to one of the noblest families of Bologna – the Canetoli. The entire family was massacred being held esponsible for the death of member of an opposing family member. Only Arcangelo, still a child, managed to save himself thanks to fortuitous circumstances.
On 29 September 1484 he took the Habit of the Congregation of the Canons Regular of Santa Maria di Reno, called “Renani”, in the Convent of the Santissimo Salvatore in Venice. Here he was entrustd with the task of welcoming pilgrims and in some of them he sometimes happened to recognise the murderers of his family members! However, he always knew how to heroically dominate his desire for revenge.
Extremely humble and a lover of solitude, for a long time he refused, any Ecclesiastical dignity and finally, in 1498, accepted Priestly Ordination only out of a sense of obedience to his Superioirs. Shortly after his Ordination he was sent, by his own request, to the Hermitage of St Ambrose, a mountainside Monastery in Gubbio. Here he would remain for the remainder of his life, although he operated as the Provincial Vicar of his Order for 4 years, still retaining his base at Gubbio.
Arcamgelo predicted that Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici would be elected as pope sometime soon and when this Cardinal became Pope Leo X in 1513, the Leo’s brother Giuliano de’ Medici summoned Canetoli to Florence in an attempt to persuade him to become the new Archbishop of Florence. But again Arangelo refused and returned to his Convent.
Arcangelo died in 1513 after a period of illness and high temperatures. He was interred in his Monastery of St Anbrose at Gubbio, where his incorrupt body remains enshrined for the veneration of pilgrims.
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