HERO OF A PLAGUE BEATIFIED

THE hero of a two-year cholera epidemic will bring another great congregation to St. Peter's on Sunday for a beatification ceremony,
He was Fr. Antonio Maria Pucci. a Servite who for over 45 years was parish priest of Viarreggio. a seaside resort on the west coast of Italy.
During the whole two years of the epidemic, day and night, little Fr. Antonio, son of a poor farmer. tended the victims, sleeping on a camp bed close to the Servite monastery door for fear that elsewhere he would not hear a sick call.
During the daytime he was often seen carrying on his shoulders a victim of the plague who had collapsed in the street.
He escaped cholera but he died, on January 12. 1892, at the age of 73, as the result of a sick call. Going out in heavy rain to minister to a dying parishioner, he contracted pneumonia.
His life-long charity and unceasing work made so deep an impression on the people that even the anticlerical municipal council held a special meeting after his death to render him civic honours.
Many miracles were attributed to him even during his lifetime.