Saint Anthony Zaccaria, Priest

Anthony Mary Zaccaria was born at Cremona in 1502 and lost his father as a baby. He studied medicine at Padua and practised as a physician in his home town, caring for the poor, before being ordained a priest in 1528. He moved to Milan, a city devastated by war and plague.

There, with two friends, he founded the Clerics Regular of Saint Paul, called Barnabites after the church of Saint Barnabas that became their center; it was approved in 1533. He also founded the Angelic Sisters of Saint Paul and a group of married lay people. He promoted frequent communion and the Forty Hours, prayer before the Eucharist in turn, and preached the letters of Paul. He died at Cremona on 5 July 1539, aged thirty-six, and was canonized in 1897.