Carmelo De Palma
The Vatican record
- 5 May 2020 — Heroic virtue declared — title Venerable (decree list, 2020)
- 28 March 2025 — Miracle through their intercession approved (decree list, 2025)
Who they were
Carmelo De Palma was a priest of Bari who lived by his own motto, 'A priest must only be a priest!' He was born on 27 January 1876 and died on 24 August 1961.
The miracles
A Benedictine nun — Bari, Italy — June 2003
On 8 December 2001 a nun of the monastery of Santa Scolastica in Bari caught what seemed like flu, then grew steadily weaker in her arms and legs. Scans showed the spinal cord compressed at the top of the neck, leaving her increasingly paralysed. Surgeons proposed a very risky operation that might not work, and she declined it. In February 2003 Father De Palma's remains were moved to her monastery, and the abbess asked the nuns to pray to him for her. On the night of 1 June 2003 she suddenly improved, and next morning she got up and walked, quickly and easily, as before her illness.
Why that counted as sanctity
The case of a Benedictine nun was examined by the Church's doctors and theologians and approved as a miracle on 28 March 2025, opening the way to beatification.
The cause
The cause continues. No postulation address is published here yet. Favours received through this person’s intercession, and offers of help, are best sent to the religious order or congregation they belonged to, or to the diocese where the cause was opened; either will pass them to the postulation.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography of Blessed Carmelo De Palma, with the miracle
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Not yet in Wikidata. Name as the Vatican spells it.
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.