MIRACULOUS MIRACLES™

Saint — Bl. Andrew Franchi of Pistoia

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Bl. Andrew Franchi of Pistoia
1335 AD, Pistoia, Republic of Florence (Boccagnini family) — May 26, 1401 AD, Pistoia
Dominican Bishop of Pistoia 1381–1401; Tuscan Catholic reformer
Church of San Domenico, Pistoia, Tuscany, Italy — his Dominican convent-foundation; his shrine, Italy
Feast
May 26
Canonized
Beatified 1921 by Pope Benedict XV
Life

Andrew (Italian Andrea) Franchi was born in 1335 at Pistoia to the Boccagnini family. He entered the Dominican Order at Pistoia and rose through the Dominican governance offices — prior of Orvieto, Lucca, and Pistoia.

In 1381, Andrew was appointed Bishop of Pistoia by Pope Urban VI (Roman-obedience pope during the Great Western Schism). His twenty-year episcopate (1381–1401) was devoted to the systematic Catholic pastoral reform of the Tuscan diocese under the specifically Dominican pattern of the Observant Reform.

Andrew famously distributed his episcopal revenues to the Pistoian poor and maintained the personal poverty despite his episcopal office. He died at Pistoia on May 26, 1401.

Miracles & Phenomena

  • The Dominican bishop-reformer tradition

    Bl. Andrew Franchi of Pistoia's twenty-year episcopate at Pistoia (1381–1401) — the systematic pastoral reform of the Tuscan diocese under the specifically Dominican Observant pattern — establishes the late-14th and 15th-century Dominican-bishop-reformer tradition, in institutional parallel with the contemporary St. Antoninus of Florence (1389–1459) and the broader Dominican Observant episcopal tradition.

Relics
  • Body
    Tomb of Bl. Andrew Franchi
    Church of San Domenico, Pistoia, Tuscany, Italy

    His tomb at the Church of San Domenico at Pistoia survives in continuous Catholic Dominican liturgical use.

Iconography
  • Andrew Franchi distributing his episcopal revenues

    The late-14th-century Dominican Bishop of Pistoia in episcopal vestments distributing the episcopal revenues to the Pistoian poor at the cathedral gate — the iconography of Catholic Dominican-Observant-episcopal tradition.

Patronages
Order of Preachers (Dominicans)Pistoia and the Tuscan Catholic traditionCatholic Dominican bishop-reformer tradition
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