As a result, at the age of 15 he was enrolled in a minor seminary in Nola, while at the same time, he began the study of law at the University of Naples Federico II.

[2] His superiors then assigned Bianchi to the Barnabite monastery attached to the Church of Santa Maria di Caravaggio, Naples, where he was to spend the rest of his life.

He became the spiritual director and confessor of Mary Frances of the Five Wounds, a Franciscan tertiary, who lived in one of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods of the city, and is now also honored as a saint.

In turn, he came spiritual friends and under the guidance of such figures as Placido Baccher, Mariano Arciero, his fellow Barnabite and student Francesco Maria Castelli,[3] Giovanni Battista Jossa, and Agnello Coppola.

He was in frequent communication with Vincent Romano as well as with King Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia and his niece, Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy, then in exile in Naples.

[2] Bianchi's life changed in 1800, when he fell into a state of religious ecstasy while praying before the exposed Blessed Sacrament on Pentecost of that year.

[2] Bianchi also begun to tremble and experiences huge palpitations of his heart whenever he prayed, in a manner similar to that which had been experienced by St. Philip Neri two centuries earlier.