Antônio de Categeró

Who they were

Blessed Antonio the Ethiopian (also called Catagerò or D'Avola) was born around 1490 at Barce in Cyrenaica, Libya, to Muslim parents who raised him in Islamic law. Captured by Sicilian galleys, he was landed at Syracuse and sold as a slave; a farmer from Avola bought him and set him to shepherding, and while teaching him about Christianity dwelt especially on the story of Christ's love and Passion. Moved by this, Antonio asked for baptism, choosing the name of the famous saint of Padua, and from then on strove to live out what he had heard of God's word.

Later owners recognised his supernatural gifts and miracles and set him free; after some years in their service he left to care for prisoners and the sick, then chose the hermit's life as a Franciscan tertiary near San Corrado Fuori le Mura, periodically going to Noto for the sacraments and to collect alms for the poor. Worn out by his ascetic life, old age and illness, he died on 14 March 1550 and was buried in the Franciscan church of Santa Maria del Gesù in Noto, which became a place of pilgrimage; in 1611 permission was given to depict him with a blessed's halo. He worked many miracles both before and after death; the Franciscan martyrology commemorates him as blessed on 23 August, while the diocese of Noto keeps his feast on 14 March.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as blessed since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

Enslaved Libyan-born hermit and Franciscan tertiary near Noto, credited with many miracles; venerated as blessed, with feast on 14 March in the diocese of Noto.