The life of Augustine Fangi was marked by piety and regularity, rather than by spiritual ambitions. Fangi was born in 1430 in
Biella, in the
Piedmont region of northern Italy, to a wealthy family who had planned a secular career for him. Instead, young Augustine was impressed by the newly arrived Dominican friars in Biella and joined the monastery there. One remarkable characteristic noted of Fangi was his equanimity and ability to
concentrate intensely on spiritual matters. One incident recorded involves a
surgical procedure which he was required to undergo without
anesthetic, as such an aid was not available in the fifteenth century. He did so without crying out at all. Afterwards, he simply stated that his mind was so intensely focused on something else that he hardly noticed what was being done. It is claimed that in prayer he was often seen levitating in ecstasy. In 1464, Fangi was made
prior of the priory at
Soncino, Lombardy. He is said to have performed several miracles there. One involved a
deformed child who had died without
baptism yet was said to have been restored to life by his prayer. Another purported miracle involved a boy who was crying bitterly because he had broken a jug of wine. Fangi gathered up the shards and put them back together again. The account continues to state that with a
prayer, he refilled the jug, and handed it back to the startled child. The last ten years of Fangi's life were spent in
Venice, where he died on 22 July 1493, the feast day of
Saint Mary Magdalene. ==Veneration==