Giacomo Papocchi

Who they were

Giacomo Papocchi was born at Montieri, near Grosseto, in 1213, and worked as a miner in the town's silver mines. Accused of stealing precious ore from the local mint, he was punished, as the law of the time prescribed, with the amputation of his right hand and left foot. He withdrew into a hermitage in a small cell attached to the ancient church of San Giacomo Maggiore, walling himself in and never leaving again.

He lived there for 46 years in strict penance, comforted by visions, including a miraculous Communion said to have been given him by Christ himself one day when heavy snow kept the priest from reaching him. He died on 28 December 1289. His fellow townspeople, moved by his holy life and by reported miracles, venerated him as a saint almost at once, a devotion attested within ten years of his death, though the process for his beatification was disrupted by the plague of 1348 and its records lost. His long-standing veneration was confirmed by Pope Pius VI in 1798, and he is included in the Proper of Saints of the Diocese of Volterra; his body is kept and venerated in the parish church of Montieri.

The miracles

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

Why that counted as sanctity

Former miner who lived 46 years walled into a hermit's cell at Montieri after losing a hand and a foot as punishment for theft; his ancient local veneration was confirmed by Pius VI in 1798.

The cause