canonized_by death_date death_place canonized_date birth_place feast_day venerated_in patronage birth_date titles article_title name
pope john paul ii 11 january 1729 -lrb- aged 73 -rrb- civitella , province of rome , papal states 21 november 1999 cori , province of rome , papal states 11 january roman -lrb- province of rome -rrb- catholic church -lrb- order of friars minor -rrb- province of rome 4 june 1655 apostle of rome of the sublacense region co-patron of the province thomas of cori
 saint thomas of cori , o.f.m.
thomas of cori

saint thomas of cori , o.f.m. , -lrb- 1655-1729 -rrb- was born into a poor family on 4 june 1655 in the town of cori , now in the province of latina but then still part of the province of rome , part of the papal states .
growing up he earned a living as a shepherd .
a religious child , he had come to know the community of franciscan friars in his village .
by the age of 14 both his parents had died .
it was therefore his responsibility to take care of his two sisters and to find them husbands .
he always had a strong devotion to god and so , after they were married , he quickly chose to enter consecrated life as a friar .
in 1683 , after completing his studies , thomas was ordained a priest .
he was immediately appointed as the assistant master of novices in orvieto .
he soon became aware of the hermit life which was re-emerging in the order during that period and joined a hermitage in civitella -lrb- today bellegra -rrb- , where he lived until his death , except for six years in which he was the guardian of a hermitage he founded in palombara , modeled after the one in civitella .
thomas followed the model of hermit life established by the founder of his order , st. francis of assisi , in that he did not stay enclosed within the hermitage , but would go out preaching in the small villages throughout the region .
he became known for his simple , clear style of preaching the gospel , and came to be called the apostle of the surrounding sublacense region .
thomas was known during his lifetime as a man of deep prayer , often spending the night in the friary chapel in prayer .
he maintained a spirit of tranquility , despite feeling a deep spiritual dryness for most of his adult life .
he died in his sleep in civitella on 11 january 1729 .
