16th Century Jesuit's Lasting Work, "The Propaganda"

During his Wednesday general audience, held for 40,000 people in St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict XVI focused his catechesis on St. John Leonardi, the patron saint of pharmacists. This Italian saint, the Pope taught, can show us that God's medicine, his son Jesus, “is the measure of all things.”

St. John Leonardi, Pope Benedict recalled, was born in the Italian town of Diecimo in the year 1541. He studied pharmacology but abandoned it to focus on theology and was later ordained a priest. Together with Monsignor Juan Vives and the Jesuit Martin de Funes he helped to found the Pontifical Urban College of Propaganda Fide, in which countless priests have been formed.

Throughout his religious life, John Leonardi never lost his passion for pharmacology, convinced that "God's medicine, which is Jesus Christ Who was crucified and rose again, is the measure of all things," the Pope said.

Link (here)

More on Fr. Martin de Funes, S.J. (here) , (here) , (here) and (here)

The Urban College in Rome is a seminary for training priests for work in mission countries. It is more popularly known as The Propaganda, because it is under the direction of the Office for the Propagation of Faith.

Photo of the "Propaganda" (here)