PictureRelic from Bd Dominic's religous robes.

Blessed Dominic Barberi was born near Viterbo, Italy, in 1972 and joined the Passionist Order, urged on by an inner assurance that God called him to work as a missionary in England. He was ordained a priest in 1818 and worked in Italy and Belgium before coming to England in 1841.

His first foundation was at Aston Hall in Staffordshire; he established four Passionist houses in all, and received many Anglicans into full communion with the Catholic Church, the most famous being Saint John Henry Newman, who was received at Littlemore near Oxford on 9 October 1845.

Blessed Dominic was noted for the personal warmth of his approach to non-Catholics and for his zeal in preaching; he drew crowds in spite of his strong Italian accent. He favoured a higher profile for the small Catholic body in England: he went around in his Passionist habit and, while at Aston Hall in 1844, organised a Corpus Christi procession through the streets of the neighbourhood, which is believed to have been the first public procession of its kind in England in modern times.

Blessed Dominic died at Reading on 27 August 1849 and was beatified by Pope Paul VI in 1963. Originally buried at St Michael's, Stone, Blessed Dominic is now buried at St Anne and Blessed Dominic Church, St Helens, Merseyside, WA9 3ZD. The shrine is also the burial place of Ven. Ignatius Spencer and Ven. Elizabeth Prout. 

The Feast of Blessed Dominic Barberi, Dominic of the Mother of God, is kept on 26th August. 


Father, you chose Dominic as a minister of your love,
so that his teaching and example helped many
to find pardon and peace in the unity of your Church.
Grant that we may follow the same way of love,
and so gain an eternal reward.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

  • The Congregation for Divine Worship granted in 1978 that Blessed Dominic's celebration in the Archdiocese should rank as a feast.
  • The chapel of St Anne, Stone opened in 1844 to support Bd Dominic's mission is presently in poor repair and cannot be visited.  It stands in the grounds of the now closed St Dominic's Covent, which is itself adjacentt to the happily thriving parish church of the Immaculate Conception and St. Dominic.  The parish website contains a wealth of information about Blessed Dominic, and places in Stone associated with him. 
  • The 'College' at Littlemore, Oxford where Bd Dominic received St John Henry Newman into full communion with the Church welcomes visitors.​
  • A resource to use for the annual Novena of Prayer for the canonisation of Blesed Dominic and to ask for his intercession can be downloaded here. 
  • A very readable life of Blessed Dominic, Dominic Barberi,  has been written by Fr Gerard Skinner and published by Gracewing.