Blessed Domenico Barberi

Blessed Domenico Barberi (born June 22, 1792, Viterbo, Papal States [Italy]—died Aug. 27, 1849, Reading, Berkshire, Eng.) was a mystic and Passionist who worked as a missionary in England.

Born a peasant and raised without any formal education, Barberi entered the Passionist order as a lay brother and was ordained a priest in 1818. In 1821, when he had finished his studies, he became lecturer in theology at a Passionist college near Vetralla. He then had assignments in Rome (from 1824), Lucca (1831), southern Italy (1833), and Belgium (1840).

In 1841 he acquired a Passionist house at Aston, Staffordshire, and in 1845 he received John Henry Newman (later Cardinal Newman) into the Roman Catholic church. He founded four Passionist houses in England and made plans for one in Ireland, which was established after his death. He was declared venerable in 1911 and beatified in 1963.