Our Founder

gasparSt. Gaspar del Bufalo was born on January 6, 1786. He was ordained a priest for the diocese of Rome in 1808, and less than two years later, he was arrested and imprisoned for refusing to take an oath of allegiance to Napoleon. During this time both his faith and determination to spread the Good News for our salvation through the Precious Blood grew stronger. After three years in prison and exile, he was released and on August 15, 1815, he founded the Missionaries of the Precious Blood at the Abbey of San Felice in Giano, Italy.

For twenty-four years, he preached missions and retreats, renewing the Church by preaching the Word and proclaiming the saving power of the Precious Blood. Through his preaching, a young woman named Maria de Mattias was moved by the spirituality of the Precious Blood to found the Adorers of the Blood of Christ in Acuto, Italy in 1834. (Maria was canonized in 2003).

St. Gaspar died on December 28, 1837. He was beatified by St. Pius X in 1904 and canonized by Pius XII on June 12, 1954. Manifesting the devotion to the Precious Blood, Pope John XIII, prior to opening Vatican II, visited his tomb in the Church of Santa Maria in Trivio on January 4, 1963, where he remains enshrined for the veneration of the faithful. Pope John XIII acclaimed St. Gaspar as the Apostle of the Precious Blood.