The Patron Saint of the Souls in Purgatory Was Visited by a Friar Suffering There

I know lots of Patronages, St Lucy for eye ailments, St Peregrine Laziosi for cancer, St Bernardino for lung problems, etc., but this is one  of which I was unware.

From Aleteia

By Larry Peterson

Leo XIII gave Nicholas of Torentino this patronage in 1884.

The Guruttis were poor farmers who lived in Sant’ Pontano, Macerata, Italy. Childless, they traveled to the shrine of St. Nicholas of Myra, the saint who inspired the modern-day Santa Claus. They prayed to St. Nicholas to asked God if He might bless them with a child who would grow up to serve God. Their prayers were answered, and sometime during the year 1245 they had a son. They named him Nicholas.

Even as a child, Nicholas displayed a pronounced spirituality. He imitated hermits and would hide in nearby caves to pray. As Nicholas grew, he realized God was, indeed, calling him to service. One day he was listening to an Augustinian priest who was preaching. Nicholas knew immediately that he wanted to join that order of priests. He became a monk at the age of 18.

While he was still studying for the priesthood, he would use any spare time he could find to give food to the poor. His superiors trusted him with feeding the poor, and he would go to the monastery gate and distribute food from the monastery’s provisions. He would give everything he could to the people waiting, and the procurator had to slow him down lest the friars had nothing to eat.

One day he was providing food to a very sick boy. He instinctively laid his hands on the boy’s head and said, “The good God will heal you.” The boy was instantly cured; naturally word of this spread quickly through the local area.

A few years later, after he was ordained a priest, another incident helped his fame to spread. An elderly woman who was blind was brought to him so he could pray over her. He said the same words he had said to the sick boy. The woman’s eyesight immediately was restored. News of this miracle was soon widespread, and people began coming from all over to ask him to pray for them and lay hands on them.