The poor commemorated his great charity

\V HEN Fr. Antonio Maria Pucci, who was known as "the " little pastor" when he was parish priest of Viareggio a century ago, was beatified in St. Peter's on Sunday, 130 Rome parishes
gave free meals to the poor "to commemorate his charity."
Similar feasts for the poor were held in Viareggio and throughout Tuscany.
Fr. Pucci, who died in 1892, was a founder of a branch of the Sisters of Mary. He was famous for his works of charity.
Some 40.000 people crowded into the Basilica for the ceremony. There were 20 relatives of Fr. •Pucci, 500 members of the order he founded, fishermen from Viareggio. and most of the Archbishops and Bishops of the area where he carried out his work.
Cardinal Tedeschini, Archpriest of St. Peter's, officiated at the ceremony. Later in the day the Holy Father descended into the Basilica to pray before a huge portrait of Fr. Pucci.
It was the last beatification ceremony of 1952 and there was an enormous demand for tickets of admission to the Basilica. The 20,000 tickets originally printed were exhausted and a special fresh printing had to be made at the last minute.
Fr. Pucci was born on April 16, 1819. His father, a peasant, was also sacristan of the parish church.
In 1837 he entered the novitiate of Florence, and was ordained in 1843. The following year he returned to Viareggio, where he spent the rest of his life.
In 1854 Viareggio was stricken by a disastrous cholera epidemic that lasted for two years. Contemporary records say that Fr. Pucci "worked like a lion" in administering to the sick.
"He was prodigious day and night near the beds of the infected." one record says. "He was informed in detail of those who were stricken. The flame of his charity made him forget himself and the danger of contamination."
After the plague he founded the first fishermen's hostel on the beach at Viareggio and worked among the fishermen until he died. The cause for his beatification was introduced' in 1922.