Thomas Corsini, Bl.
THOMAS CORSINI, BL.
Servite lay brother; b. Orvieto, Italy, c. 1260; d. June 21, 1343. There is very little to record of Thomas's life, since it was outwardly uneventful. Our Lady appeared to him in a vision and urged him to take up her cause. At first he was doubtful and attributed the vision to hallucinations, but when it was repeated, he decided to join the servite Brothers. Despite his noble origin, he preferred to remain a simple lay brother, and he afforded miraculous proofs of virtue, self-abasement, and desire for the contemplative life. He heroically took upon himself the rigorous hardships of begging alms for his community. His cult was confirmed in 1768.
Feast: June 23.
Bibliography: a. mercati and a. pelzer, Dizionario ecclesiastico, 3 v. (Turin 1954–58) 3:1148. l. fischer, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. m. buchberber, 10 v. (Freiburg 1930–38) 3:93. Annales Ordinis Servorum Mariae (Florence 1618). c. lazzarini, Compendio della vita del b o Tommaso di Orvieto (Orvieto 1858). b. m. spoerr, Lebens-Bilder aus dem Serviten Orden, 4 v. (Innsbruck 1892–95) v.1. Monumenta Ord. Servorum S. Mariae, ed. a. morini et al., 20 v. (Brussels-Rome 1897–1930) v.11. a. giani and a. m. garbi, Annales Sacri Ordinis Fratrum Servorum B. Mariae Virginis, 3 v. (2d ed. Licca 1719–25) v.1. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, rev. ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York, 1956) 2:626–627.
[f. d. lazenby]