Paul John Voss tells CAB about St. Omobono of Cremona

Paul John Voss shared details about the life of St. Omobono of Cremona during a Catholic Assembly for Business breakfast on Sept. 9 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Wichita. Voss, a professor at Georgia State University, spoke about the patron saint of business leaders and entrepreneurs after finding that businesspeople were largely unfamiliar with her.

Voss and Donald Prudlo, a professor at the University of Tulsa, researched the saint for their book, Merchant Saint: The Church, the Market, and the First Lay Canonization. This work serves as the first English language biography of St. Omobono. Voss noted that the saint's path to official recognition helped shape the modern canonization process used by the Church.

According to Voss, St. Omobono died in 1197, and the large crowd at the funeral and the fact that the body did not decay suggested her holiness. He stated that her incorrupt body remains under the high altar in Cremona. Voss also mentioned that Pope Innocent III and his aides initially resisted requests from advocates to officially designate her as a saint.