Blessed Paul Joseph Nardini (1821-1862)

Today marks the death of Blessed Paul Joseph Nardini (1821-1862), priest and founder of a religious community. Born to a single mother in Germany, he was raised by his aunt and uncle. After studying at the University of Munich, he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Speyer in 1846. For the next sixteen years he worked as a parish priest. In 1855 he founded the Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Family to teach poor children and care for the elderly. When he was bringing Communion to a dying parishioner on a cold winter night, he caught a pulmonary typhus and died in 1862. He was beatified in 2006.