Saint John Baptist de Rossi

John Baptist de Rossi was born on February 22, 1698, at Voltaggio, near Genoa, Italy. At thirteen he went to Rome to study with the Jesuits at the Roman College and was ordained a priest in 1721. He suffered from epilepsy all his life, which kept him from some ministries but made him especially compassionate toward the sick and the poor.

He sought out people others ignored: the cattle drovers and farmworkers who slept in the Roman Forum, beggars, prisoners and the sick in the hospitals. He opened a refuge for homeless girls and women near Santa Galla. Made a canon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, he gave his income to the poor. For years he avoided hearing confessions out of scruples, but once he began, he became one of Rome's most sought-after confessors, spending hours each day in the confessional. He died in Rome on May 23, 1764, and was canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1881.

Rome remembers him especially at the church of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, where his body rests. Priests and confessors, and people with epilepsy, often ask his intercession.