Giacomo Cusmano
Italian Catholic priest, physician and blessed (1834–1888)
Feast: 14 March (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Giacomo Cusmano was born at Palermo on 15 March 1834. He lost his mother at three and qualified as a doctor at 21, becoming known as 'the doctor of the poor'.
Becoming a priest, he opened a House of the Poor and founded the Association of the 'Poor Man's Mouthful', begging in the streets of Palermo for food for the hungry. He founded the Missionary Servants of the Poor and the Sister Servants of the Poor.
The miracles
The Dicastery's biography does not describe the miracles approved in the cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
The doctor of the poor of Palermo, who begged in the streets to feed them.
The cause
Giacomo Cusmano has been beatified; the cause continues. Favours received, and offers of help, go to the postulation, the office that carries the cause forward: Servants of the Poor: Blessed Giacomo Cusmano.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Giacomo Cusmano
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - beatification of 30 October 1983
- Wikidata Q3762059 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Giacomo Cusmano (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 22 September 2026. Corrections welcome.