Patronage Bitetto
Immigrants | Name Jakov Varingez | |
Beatified 29 December 1700, Rome, Papal States by Pope Clement XI Feast 27 April
20 April (Franciscans) Attributes Capuchin habit
Crucifix
Rosary Died April 27, 1496, Bitetto, Italy | ||
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church | ||
Blessed Jakov Varingez (1400 – 27 April 1496) was a Croatian Roman Catholic professed religious of the Order of Friars Minor. He later assumed the name of "Giacomo of Bitetto" after his profession into that order.
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He was beatified on 29 December 1700 after Pope Clement XI confirmed his cultus and was proclaimed to be Venerable on 19 December 2009 after Pope Benedict XVI recognized his life of heroic virtue.
Life
Jakov Varingez was born in Zadar in 1400 to Leonardo and Beatrice Varingez.
He relocated to Bari in the Kingdom of Naples in order to escape Turkish invaders of Croatia between the ages of 18-20. It was there that he felt a deep call to religious life and thus decided to join the Order of Friars Minor in Bitetto. He spent his time there as a cook as well as a sacristan and gardener. He was known for his devout and simple life and was prone to ecstasies. He was also noted as being a miracle worker and for his skill of levitation. He worked with victims of the plague in 1482.
Varingez died on 27 April 1496 at the age of 96 and was exhumed two decades after his death in which it was found that he was incorrupt.
Beatification
The beatification process commenced in Bari and culminated after Pope Clement XI confirmed his cultus on 29 December 1700. This accorded him the title of Blessed without the formal process needing to be completed on the account of his strong following.
For the canonization process to proceed he needed to be declared Venerable. The diocesan process in Bari opened under Pope John Paul II on 27 June 1989 and concluded around a decade after. It received two formal decrees of ratification on both 18 December 1998 and then a decade later on 19 December 2008. The Positio was submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome in 1999 and was delegated to the historical commission around that time.
It was on 19 December 2009 that he was proclaimed to be Venerable after Pope Benedict XVI recognized that Varingez had lived a life of heroic virtue.