“The Prophet of the Last Times.”
Francis was born on December 2, 1743, in Arpino, in central Italy, to a loving and pious family. His mother taught him to care for the poor around them, giving example by setting up a small clinic in the family home where she would nurse up to 16 of those in need. He was far from a typical pious child as he would later confess to stealing money from his parents.
What changed his life was a slow and steady resolve to conquer his own will. As he grew, he felt a religious calling, but his parents initially opposed. Still, at the age of 15, he attended a minor seminary in Nola while also studying law at the University of Naples Federico II. He strived hard to overcome his father’s opposition to his progress in religious vocation, but he carried on.
By the time he completed his studies, his parents had relented, and he was admitted to the Barnabite Order that following year where he was sent to pursue a study of philosophy and theology.
At the age of 24 he was ordained a priest and immediately appointed as the Superior of the College of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, which he officed for 12 years. He spent many hours in the confessional, sustained by a deep prayer life, and made himself available to anyone seeking his ministry and counsel.
His fame as a scholar gave him various assignments of prestige which he carried out with expertise. He also experienced visions of future events and predicted earthquakes, political changes, and deaths. They were so accurate that he became known as the “The Prophet of the Last Times.”
Later in his life he became crippled with swelling and ulceration in both his legs, with the inability to stand or move about. Still, he managed to celebrate Mass by holding himself up and enduring through the great pain.
In 1805, a lava flow from the erupting Mount Vesuvius threatened Naples. The same mount which destroyed Pompei in 79 A.D. He requested transport to the edge of the lava, raised his hand in benediction against the fury, and amazingly stopped the flow of devastating lava, saving Naples.
Although bedridden, Father Bianchi continued to counsel those who came to him. During a century highlighted with anger and vengeance, and ravished with hatred, he preached by his own example the word of Love which gives light and life to the world.
3 days before his death, he experienced a vision of his deceased penitent, Saint Mary Frances of Naples, who before her own death in 1791, had promised to appear to him. He was still living in the Barnabite monastery of Naples when it was closed in 1809, as part of the suppression of all monasteries and religious houses under the Napoleonic Kingdom of Naples. He was able to remain in the city, where he died on January 31, 1815.
He has been declared the Apostle of Naples.
His feast day is January 31.
For God’s Glory.
