Blessed Angelo Scarpetti of San Sepolcro

Blessed Angelo bore witness to the holiness of the Augustinian Order from its very beginnings.

Very little is known, unfortunately, of this Augustinian friar, who was born in Borgo San Sepolcro, Umbria, Italy, and entered the Augustinian Order around 1254. He lived during the time of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino.

Historians record that Blessed Angelo was sent to offer assistance in the Province of England and died in his native town around 1306. Herrera, the famous Augustinian historian, describes him “as a beautiful flower on the branches of the Augustinian tree.”

His body was first venerated in the church of Saint Augustine, and after 1555 in the newer monastery of Saint Clare. It seems that his cult, confirmed on 27 July 1921, began with his death. Around 1311 there already existed at the Augustinian church of San Sepolcro a confraternity of Our Lady “and glorious Saint Angelo.” Diocesan bishops who examined his body in the seventeenth century found it still incorrupt.

Angelo was noted especially for the virtues of humility, a childlike innocence, the spirit of poverty, and apostolic zeal.

His feast is celebrated by the Augustinian Family on 3 October.