Saint Ignatius of Laconi

Vincenzo Peis was born in 1701 in Laconi, Sardinia, the second of nine children of a poor farming family. As a young man, after recovering from a serious illness, he kept a vow to become a religious and in 1721 entered the Capuchin Franciscans in Cagliari as a lay brother, taking the name Ignatius.

After years of work in the friary's weaving shop, he was given the task of questor, collecting alms for the community. For about forty years he walked the streets of Cagliari with his sack, greeting everyone, visiting the sick, teaching children their prayers and reconciling enemies. People came to trust his advice and credited him with healings. Blind in his last years, he died in Cagliari on May 11, 1781, and was canonized by Pius XII in 1951.

Sardinians honor him as one of their most beloved saints. His hometown of Laconi celebrates with pilgrimages to his birthplace, and his remains are venerated in the Capuchin church of Sant'Ignazio in Cagliari.