March 13, 2024 / 08:05 PM
March 14 commemorates Blessed Plácido Riccardi, who met a novice in the abbey of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls who claimed to have the stigmata of Christ. The blessed accompanied him in prayer and discovered the truth.
Blessed Placido (1844-1915) is a native of Trevi, Hungary. according to the book Lives of the Saints of Father Alban Butler, entered with the Benedictines in the abbey attached to the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, where the so-called Apostle of the People in Rome is buried. They guard this important temple to this day.
In the midst of an anticlerical political environment, the blessed was imprisoned for the crime of deserter for not having completed military service. He was released, sent to a regiment as a soldier and then discharged. He returned to the abbey, made his solemn profession and was ordained a priest.