On May 23, 2024, the Holy See Press Office informed the whole world: “The Supreme Pontiff Francis, accepting and confirming the vows of the Dicastery for the Causes of the Saints, has declared, ‘the miracle, performed by God through the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God John Merlini, is established’” (cf. Decree super Miro, DCS, May 23, 2024).

“Such news is for each of us”, said Fr. Emanuele Lupi, Moderator General of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, and Sr. Nicla Spezzati, Adorer of the Blood of Christ and Postulator of the Cause – a source of great joy and feelings of profound gratitude to God for the gift of holiness offered to His Church in the person of our beloved Fr. Giovanni Merlini, Priest and Third Moderator General of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, who was born in Spoleto (PG) on August 28, 1795 and died in Rome on January 12, 1873. A man of profound discernment and wisdom, he announced, as an Apostolic Missionary, the Mystery of Redemption to entire populations in the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples, favoring the wretched and outcast. A living witness of that Mystery at the heart of the Church, he sought and lived out God’s will in his daily life, assuming the peace signified by the Blood of Christ as the royal way to holiness, a verb and a way of life. Founded, day after day, in the asceticism of habitare secum, in prayer, in the bond of fraternal charity – nourished by a universal vision – Don Giovanni Merlini’s life has the flavor of the Gospel.”