Bl. Francis of Pesaro

Following the early deaths of his parents, Francis Cichi, of Pesaro, Italy, devoted his inherited wealth to alms for the needy and to the founding of three hermitages, each furnished with a chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Francis became a Third Order Franciscan, living as a hermit on the slopes of Mount San Bartolo. An amazing feature of his hermitage observed by his visitors was a huge boulder inexplicably held in place on the mountain slope immediately above his hut. The rock had come to a rest in this position, stopped seemingly by divine intervention, after it had been thrust down the slope by the devil, who, enraged by the hermit's prayers and penances, had been harassing him. Francis had a pet rooster that he depended upon to wake him for his morning devotions. While Francis was ill with a sickness that was starving him, those tending him took it upon themselves to kill the rooster with the intent of making a meal for him. Grieved by what they had done, Francis took the dead bird in his hands, and made the sign of the cross over it. Immediately the rooster returned to life.