1882 – 1951 (May 21)
Ambrogio Colorito, son of Antonio Colorito and Maria Porto, was born in Maenza, Italy, on April 5, 1882. He professed vows in the Order as a member of the Roman Province on October 22, 1898, studied at the convent of the Most Holy Trinity at Viterbo, and was ordained to the priesthood on July 25, 1905. In Italy he served for a time at the convent of Santo Spirito in Florence. He left to join the Italian Mission in the United States in 1912, shortly after the end of World War I, and was assigned to the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel in South Philadelphia. He went back to Italy, stayed for one year, and then returned to Philadelphia where he labored for the next 31 years principally at the churches of Our Lady of Good Counsel and Saint Nicholas of Tolentine.
On November 27, 1948 he was appointed by the Prior General as counselor to Commissary Provincial, Mortimer Sullivan, who was at the same time Provincial of the Province of Saint Thomas of Villanova.
Father Colorito was an excellent preacher and kept himself well informed of the activities of Church and State. He was also a very popular confessor and well known throughout the neighborhoods where he ministered, for the long walks he took each day. He underwent an operation on his mastoid which seemed to be successful but after returning home he became ill again and was rushed to St. Agnes Hospital where he died on May 21, 1951 at the age of 69.
His funeral Mass was celebrated at Saint Nicholas of Tolentine Church in the presence of an overflowing crowd. He was buried in the community cemetery at Villanova according to the wishes of the Commissary Provincial at the time, Father Joseph Dougherty.
