Yesterday, Pope Francis allowed the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to issue a decree about the miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God Giovanni Merlini, priest and Precious Blood missionary (Spoleto, August 28, 1785 - Rome, January 12, 1873). The miracle is the recovery of a Benevento man from a retroperitoneal hematoma. Fr. Giovanni Merlini was born in Spoleto on August 28, 1795, to Luigi Merlini and Antonia Claudia Arcangeli. After being ordained as a priest for the diocese of Spoleto on December 19, 1818, during a course of spiritual exercises at the Abbey of San Felice in Giano dell'Umbria, he met St Gaspar del Bufalo, founder of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, in 1820. The encounter will impact both of their lives. As a father figure and role model for Giovanni, Gaspare persuaded him to join the Congregation on August 15, 1820, and eventually become one of its prominent figures. In accordance with the Congregation's charism, Fr. Giovanni will serve as a spiritual mentor and preacher of the Gospel through the popular missions. We remember his exceptional ability to soften the hearts of brigands in lower Lazio who approached him in 1824 to request pardon from the Pope. He formed the Adorers of the Blood of Christ in 1834 at the Church of Santa Maria De Mattias, with the assistance of his father. In 1847, he succeeded St. Gaspar del Bufalo as general moderator of the Congregation. Fr. Giovanni Merlini knew ability to dream big for both religious congregations, even going so far as to establish them abroad. He became an adviser to Blessed Pius IX, from whom he obtained the expansion of the Precious Blood feast to the entire Church with the bull "Redempti sumus" of August 10, 1849. Years of effort and prayer earned him the title of "saint of the crucifers," which came from the name of the square where the General Curia of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood met at the time. Fr. Giovanni died on January 12, 1873, in the same house near the Trevi Fountain in Rome, as a result of a "bad accident caused to him by an anticlerical in a carriage". Even now, many faithful still summon him from the church of Santa Maria in Trivio, where he is buried with the saint Gaspare del Bufalo. On May 10, 1973, his heroic qualities were acknowledged.