Bl. Nicholas Fortiguera

While studying in Bologna, Italy, Nicholas Fortiguera, of Siena, was so impressed by the preaching of Saint Dominic that he donated his possessions to the poor and asked Dominic for the habit of his Order of Friars Preachers. As a Dominican priest, Nicholas devoted his energies to the conversion of sinners, bringing many to repentance. He also won the conversion to the faith of numerous Jews and heretical Christians. While on the island of Corsica, he learned that the pope wanted to make him a bishop. At first the humble friar hid himself in a grotto in the hope of escaping elevation to this high office. But he soon experienced a vision of the fourth century bishop Saint Nicholas of Myra, who assured him that the episcopacy was God's will for him. As bishop of what is now part of the diocese of Ajaccio, Corsica, Nicholas combined a personal life of frequent prayer and rigorous mortification with great generosity to the poor. Having foretold in a sermon his own death, he died immediately after a Mass celebrated in his presence.