Following the epidemic, Labre set off for La Trappe Abbey to apply to the Trappist Order, but was refused on grounds of being underage, too delicate, and having no special recommendations.

[3] Labre, according to Catholic tradition, experienced a desire, which he considered was given to him by God and inspired by the example of Alexius of Rome and that of the Franciscan tertiary pilgrim, Saint Roch, to "abandon his country, his parents, and whatever is flattering in the world to lead a new sort of life, a life most painful, most penitential, not in a wilderness nor in a cloister, but in the midst of the world, devoutly visiting as a pilgrim the famous places of Christian devotion.

He visited the various shrines in Loreto, Assisi, Naples, and Bari in Italy, Einsiedeln in Switzerland, Paray-le-Monial in France, and Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

He was a familiar figure in the city and known as the "saint of the Forty Hours" (or Quarant' Ore) for his dedication to Eucharistic adoration.

He died there of malnutrition and exhaustion on 16 April 1783,[2] during Holy Week, and was buried in the Church of Santa Maria ai Monti.

Labre's confessor, Marconi, wrote his biography and attributed 136 separate cures to his intercession within three months of his death.

Those miracles were instrumental in the conversion of the Reverend John Thayer, the first American Protestant clergyman to convert to Catholicism, who was resident in Rome at the time of St. Benedict's death.