Nicola da Forca Palena
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Blessed Nicola da Forca Palena T.O.S.F. |
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| Religious | |
| Born |
10 September 1349 Forca, Chieti, Papal States |
| Died | 1 October 1449 (aged 100) Rome, Papal States |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 27 August 1771, Saint Peter's Basilica, Papal States by Pope Clement XIV |
| Major shrine | Sant'Onofrio, Italy |
| Feast | 1 October |
| Attributes | Franciscan habit |
| Patronage |
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Blessed Nicola da Forca Palena (10 September 1349 - 1 October 1449) was an Italian Roman Catholic professed member of the Third Order of Saint Francis and the co-founder of the Poor Hermits of Saint Jerome - founded alongside Blessed Pietro Gambacorta. He established the Sant'Onofrio church in Rome where he was later buried. He became a friend to both Pope Eugene IV and Pope Nicholas V.
His beatification received formal approval from Pope Clement XIV on 27 August 1771 after the pontiff acknowledged the fact that there was a local 'cultus' - or popular devotion - to the late religious that endured since his death.
Nicola da Forca Palena was born in a modest house in Forca - in Chieri - on 10 September 1349 to devout and modest parents. On the previous day, 9 September 1349, a devastating earthquake had struck the region and the surrounding areas.
He became a professed member of the Third Order of Saint Francis and became noted for penitential acts and those austere methods that defined his life. He undertook a pilgrimage to Rome where he visited the tombs of each of the apostles and there felt a call to lead a more austere mode of life. He decided to join several companions to live the life of solitude that the group craved and so he decided to retire to a hermitage. He moved to one such place in Rome and later moved to another one in Naples before returning to Rome once more in 1419. He founded the Santa Maria della Grazie hermitage in Sperlonga in Naples and a hospice at the square of Sant'Agnello. Nicola attended the Jubilee in 1400 that Pope Boniface IX presided over.
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