Tolentino is a town near the Italian Adriatic coast, not far from the port of Ancona. St. Nicholas was born in the same region, at Sant’ Angelo, in 1245. He was named Nicholas because his middle aged parents, despairing of having any children, had made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Nicholas at Bari, further down the coast, and their prayer had been answered. At the age of 18 he joined the Augustinians and in 1270 was ordained a priest. He soon acquired a reputation for holiness and shrewdness and in the various friaries in which he served – including a spell as novice-master – he attracted many of the faithful by his spiritual personality. He eventually was sent to Tolentino, a town much beset by the inter-factional rivalry which was tearing Italy at the time, between the ‘Guelfs’ (the pro-Papal party) and the ‘Ghibellines’ (the pro-Imperial party). St. Nicholas was not only a powerful force for peace, but a distinguished preacher, confessor, visitor of the sick, and consoler of the poor. Many obdurate souls turned back to God through his ministry. He died in 1305; there were almost immediate demands for his canonisation, but the onset of the Papal Schism (with rival claimaints in Rome and Avignon, and later in Spain as well) delayed the process until 1446. He has been portrayed in art by several distinguished painters including Raphael, usually with a basket of bread rolls, the so called "St. Nicholas’ Bread" which was distributed to the sick. His shrine survives to this day in Tolentino.