Tommaso da Olera
Italian Capuchin and Blessed
Feast: 3 May (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Tommaso Acerbis was born at Olera, near Alzano Lombardo, in 1563 to a farming family, and worked as a shepherd from childhood without schooling. At seventeen he entered the Capuchins at Verona as a lay brother; there he was taught to read and write and sent out to beg for the friars.
Known as 'the questing friar' in many parishes of the Venetian Republic, a great witness of Christ's humility and charity, the once-illiterate brother came to write personally of his experience of faith. He died in May 1631.
The miracles
The Dicastery's biography does not describe the miracles approved in the cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
An unschooled shepherd who became a humble begging friar and a writer on the life of faith.
The cause
Tommaso da Olera has been beatified; the cause continues. Favours received, and offers of help, go to the postulation, the office that carries the cause forward: The cause of Blessed Tommaso da Olera.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Tommaso da Olera
- Wikidata Q3992871 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Tommaso da Olera (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.