Torello da Poppi
Feast: 16 March (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Torello was born at Poppi in the Casentino. After his father died he fell into bad company, until, the story goes, a cock landed on his arm during a game and crowed three times, which he took as a warning from God. He confessed to the abbot of San Fedele, gave away nearly everything he owned, and built a tiny hermitage under a rock near Poppi.
He lived there for over fifty years in fierce penance, with very little sleep or food, known to only one friend, and died at prayer aged about eighty. Many miracles were told of him, notably the rescue of a boy from a wolf. He belonged to no religious order, and his veneration was approved by Pope Benedict XIV.
The miracles
The source does not describe the miracles approved in the cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
A penitent hermit of Tuscany who spent more than fifty years alone near Poppi.
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.
- Butler's Lives of the Saints, ed. Thurston and Attwater (1956), vol. I - 16 March
- Wikidata Q36293401 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
Checked against the sources listed on 22 September 2026. Corrections welcome.