Gentile z Matelica
Feast: 5 September (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Gentilis was born at Matelica, near Ancona, at the end of the thirteenth century and became a Franciscan friar, twice serving as guardian at Mount Alverna. Drawn to preach in the East, he went to Egypt, struggled at first to learn Arabic, and travelled across Arabia with the Venetian envoy Mark Cornaro, whom he nursed in illness, visiting Mount Sinai on the way.
He preached through Persia as far north as Trebizond and is said to have baptised many converts. He was put to death for the faith in 1340, in circumstances that are not known. His body was taken to Venice, and Pope St Pius V approved his veneration.
The miracles
As a martyr he was raised to the altars without a miracle.
Why that counted as sanctity
A Franciscan missionary from the Marches martyred in Persia.
- Butler's Lives of the Saints, ed. Thurston and Attwater (1956), vol. III - 5 September
- Wikidata Q9266960 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
Checked against the sources listed on 22 September 2026. Corrections welcome.