- James of Oldo
- James D’Oldo
- James of Lodi
- James Oldi
The son of Marchese and Fiordonina Oldo, his father died when the boy was young, leaving him a legacy that allowed to grow up a rich and self-indulgent youth. Married to Catharine Bocconi, a woman of similar disposition; father of three children. The death of a friend to disease brought his own mortality to James’ attention and matured him slightly. Then one day a travelling reproduction of the Holy Sepulchre came to his home town of Lodi, Italy. As a joke, James lay down on it to compare his height to Christ’s. While lying there, he had an almost instantaneous conversion experience.
He became a Franciscan tertiary. James took care of a sick priest who, in return, taught him Latin. His mother and wife were opposed to James’s change until his mother had a vision of being before the judgement seat of God. Both women became Franciscan tertiaries and turned their mansion into a center for prayer. They and spent their later years working with the sick and the prisoners taken in the civil war that devastated Lodi.
Upon his wife‘s death, James became a priest in 1397. His acts of penance became so severe that his bishop had to order him to eat at least three times a week. Preacher whose life and words moved many to enter the religious life. Had the gift of prophecy; predicted wars and his own death.
- 18 April 1404 of an unknown buried in the church of Saint Julian, the construction of which he and his wife had financed
- when moved seven years after his death, his body was found incorrupt
- re-interred in the nearby Church of Sant’Egidio in 1580
- re-interred in the Cathedral of Lodi in 1789
- American Catholic
- Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
- Catholic News Agency
- Kirken i Norge
- Martirologio Romano, 2005 edition
- Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
- “Blessed James Oldo“. Saints.SQPN.com. 12 March 2014. Web. 28 February 2015. <>