SIMON BALLACHI, BL.

Dominican; b. c. 1258; d. c. 1329. He entered the Dominican house at Rimini as a lay brother at the age of 27. Biographers in the 17th century identified him as the son of Count Rodulfus de Ballochi of S. Archangelo, a town near Rimini, but no local document or historian of the period confirms this information. Simon, employed principally in the monastery garden, also taught catechism to the young children. He lived a life of great humility and disciplined his body with corporal penances for the conversion of sinners. As a result of his penances, he became blind at 59. He lived thus with such courage and cheerfulness for 12 years that from the day of his death he was regarded as a saint. His body was buried in the Dominican church of St. Cataldus at Rimini. After several translations, Simon's relics were finally interred in the church of S. Archangelo on July 3, 1817. pius vii in 1820 confirmed his cult for the Diocese of Rimini and for the Dominican Order.

Feast: Nov. 3.

Bibliography: Summarium probationum ad cultus confirmationem obtinendam (Rome 1820). Acta Sanctorum Nov.2.1:209–212. j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienheureux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes, ed. by the Benedictines of Paris, 12 v. (Paris 1935–56) 11:101. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, rev. ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York, 1956) 4:254–255. g. lÖhr, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 9:574.

[m. g. mcneil]