Venerable Nicola D’Onofrio Church officials are studying a reported miracle attributed to an Italian Catholic who died at the age of 21, the postulator of his cause has said.
Fr Walter Vinci, Postulator General of the Order of St Camillus, noted that Pope Francis had recognised the heroic virtues of Nicola d’Onofrio on July 5, 2013.
Heroic virtue is one of the requirements for beatification in the Catholic Church. A verified miracle attributed to the candidate’s intercession is also usually required.
“We are currently studying an ‘alleged’ miracle. Therefore, we can say that the process of beatification and canonisation is proceeding serenely,” Fr Vinci told ACI Stampa.
The priest did not describe the purported miracle, but in 2008 a Chilean woman said that she recovered from cerebral palsy thanks to d’Onofrio’s intercession.
Fr Vinci explained that d’Onofrio’s reputation for holiness grew out of the courage with which he accepted suffering.
The candidate for beatification, known to friends as Nicolino, was born in 1943 in Villamagna, in the Abruzzo region of southeastern Italy, not far from the birthplace of St Camillus de Lellis, the 16th-century founder of the Camillians.