The patron saint of pharmacists has found a niche at the Vatican, complete with the blessing of Benedict XVI.The Pope today blessed a 27-ton, 5.4-meter-tall (17.7 feet) statue of St. John Leonardi, which was placed in an outside lateral niche of St. Peter's Basilica. The statue is the work of Italian artist Paolo Cavallo.
John Leonardi (1541-1609) founded the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God. Pope Pius XI canonized him in 1938. The saint was proclaimed the patron of pharmacists in 2006 by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.
Leonardi was himself a pharmacist. In helping the poor in his native city of Lucca, he discovered his priestly vocation. The congregation he founded is dedicated to catechizing the youth and the apostolic renovation of the clergy. He became one of the protagonists of the Counter-Reformation.
Leonardi collaborated in the foundation of what would later become Rome's Urbanian College for the Propagation of the Faith, a center for the formation of missionary seminarians.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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