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Gaspar Melchoir Balthazar de Bufalo was born on the feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 1786, in Rome, Papal States. His name reflects the traditional legendary names given to the people who followed the star to visit the Christ Child. His parents, Antonio and Annunziata del Bufalo, ensured he had a firm foundation in the Catholic faith.
Gaspar’s father, Antonio, tried being an entrepreneur, but he was unsuccessful at that. He also had an interest in the theater and professional soccer. Eventually, though, he became a chef in the household of the noble Altieri family, and Gaspar grew up living with his parents in the servants’ quarters of the palace across from the Church of the Gesu.
Biographers say that young Gasper, sometimes spelled as Casper or Jasper, had delicate health as a young child and had an incurable eye condition that his parents thought might lead to blindness one day. As a result of her faith, and because there was a relic of the great missionary priest St. Francis Xavier on the altar in the Gesu church, Annunziata had a great devotion to this saint. So, when young Gaspar recovered from his eye illness at age 30, he too developed a special devotion to this saint.
As a young man in Rome, Gaspar was known for putting his faith into action. In particular, he had a great devotion to the poor and the sick, and he even founded a religious organization for young people who prayed together and did charitable works around the city.
In 1808, at the age of 22, Gaspar was ordained a priest of Rome. Because of his missionary zeal before ordination, no one was surprised when he formed an evening society for the farm workers and laborers who came to Rome to sell their products, set up a night shelter for the homeless, and provided catechesis for orphans and poor children of the city.
In 1809, Father Gaspar was arrested with other Catholic priests who refused to take an oath of allegiance to Napoleon Bonaparte and exiled to northern Italy for four years.
When he returned to Rome after his imprisonment, Father Gaspar considered joining the Jesuit Fathers. Pope. Pius VII, however, encouraged him, instead, to devote himself to preaching missions in the area because the people needed some semblance of peace and order after a time of political chaos. Father Gaspar happily carried out the pope’s wishes.
In 1815, Father Gaspar founded a new religious order of priests and Brothers called the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. By 1821, the Papal States were lawless areas controlled by gangs. Pope Pius VII asked Father Gaspar and his men to go into the towns and provinces where the gangs ruled and establish a missionary presence. Father Gaspar, always willing to do his part for the Church, set up six new mission houses between 1821 and 1823 with his fellow Precious Blood Missionaries.
Although Fr. Gaspar and his men were successful in many ways, they made enemies along the way, people who did not want change. In time, however, the Precious Blood Fathers and Brothers were successful in their efforts to re-evangelize central Italy
One of Father Gaspar’s last charitable activities was to help provide spiritual care to victims of a cholera epidemic. Father Gaspar died in Rome on December 28, 1837, and canonized on June 12, 1954. Saint Gaspar de Bufalo’s feast day is January 2.
Today, the Precious Blood Missionaries serve in Australia as well as in various nations of Africa, Asia, Central America, Europe, North America, and South America.
