Tommaso Riccardi

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Tommaso Riccardi, OSB (24 June 1844 – 25 March 1915) was an Italian Catholic priest and Benedictine monk of the Cassinese Congregation. In religion he was known as Placido. Born in Trevi, Umbria, he moved to Rome in 1865 to study for the priesthood, studying philosophy at the Angelicum. A pilgrimage to Loreto inspired him to join the Benedictine abbey of St. Paul Outside the Walls on 12 November 1866; he made his monastic profession in 1868 and was ordained a priest on 25 March 1871. He served as novice master, with the future Cardinal Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster among his novices. He contracted malaria in 1881 and suffered from it for life. He worked as a spiritual director in Perugia from 1882, served as rector of the Basilica of Santa Maria di Farfa in 1894, and lived as a hermit near San Fiano; he also acted as a confessor to a convent of Poor Clares. His spiritual writings were approved by theologians on 9 May 1934. The beatification process began on 27 March 1935; he was declared Venerable on 4 June 1944. Pope Pius XII approved two miracles and beatified him on 5 December 1954 at St. Peter's Basilica. He died on 25 March 1915 in Rome.