[Rank]
S. Gregorii Barbadici Episcopi Confessoris;;Duplex;;3;;vide C4

[Rule]
vide C4;
9 lectiones

[Oratio]
O God, Who have willed that Blessed Gregory, Your Confessor and Bishop, be renowned for the care of his flock and compassion for the poor; favorably grant that we who honor his merits may imitate the example of his charity.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio94]
Gregory Barbarigo, born at Venice of a very old family, obtained his degree in Canon and Civil Law Magna cum Laude at the college of Padua. While attending the peace congress of Muenster at the age of nineteen, he met the papal legate Fabio Chigi, and with his encouragement decided to became an ecclesiastic, and was admitted to holy orders. When Fabio Chigi became pope under the name of Alexander VII, he appointed Gregory bishop of Bergamo, and soon raised him to the college of Cardinals, transferring his to the See of Padua. In entering upon his episcopal duties, he strove to model himself upon St. Charles Borromeo. It was his lifelong endeavor to extirpate vices and cultivate virtues in obedience, to the warnings and decrees of the sacred synod of Trent. In both dioceses he enlarged the seminaries. At Padua especially he improved the library, and the press, which published books for distribution among the peoples of the Near East. He strenuously fostered Catechetical instruction and zealously traveled to every village of the diocese to teach and preach. He was distinguished for his works of charity and the holiness of his life. So generous was he to the needy and poor, that he even give away his household goods, his clothes and his bed to help them. Finally, after a brief illness, he fell asleep peacefully in the Lord on June 18, 1697. Renowned for his merits and his virtues, he was inscribed among the Blessed by Clement XIII and among the Saints by John XXIII.
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