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Blessed James Oldo

Also known as

James of Oldo
James D’Oldo
James of Lodi
James Oldi
Jakob….
Jacopo….
Giacomo….

18 April

Profile

The son of Marchese and Fiordonina Oldo, his father died when the boy was young, leaving him a legacy that allowed to grow up a rich and self-indulgent youth. Married to Catharine Bocconi, a woman of similar disposition; father of three children. The death of a friend to disease brought his own mortality to James’ attention and matured him slightly. Then one day a travelling reproduction of the Holy Sepulchre came to his home town of Lodi, Italy. As a joke, James lay down on it to compare his height to Christ’s. While lying there, he had an almost instantaneous conversion experience.

He became a Franciscan tertiary. James took care of a sick priest who, in return, taught him Latin. His mother and wife were opposed to James’s change until his mother had a vision of being before the judgement seat of God. Both women became Franciscan tertiaries and turned their mansion into a center for prayer. They and spent their later years working with the sick and the prisoners taken in the civil war that devastated Lodi.

Upon his wife‘s death, James became a priest in 1397. His acts of penance became so severe that his bishop had to order him to eat at least three times a week. Preacher whose life and words moved many to enter the religious life. Had the gift of prophecy; predicted wars and his own death.

Born

1364 at Lodi, Italy

Died

18 April 1404 of an unknown illness caught from one of his patients
buried in the church of Saint Julian, the construction of which he and his wife had financed
when moved seven years after his death, his body was found incorrupt
re-interred in the nearby Church of Sant’Egidio in 1580
re-interred in the Cathedral of Lodi in 1789