Giovanni Merlini (28 August 1795 - 12 January 1873) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member in the Missionaries of the Precious Blood.

In 1973 he became titled as Venerable after Pope Paul VI confirmed that the late priest had practiced heroic virtue during his lifetime.

He attended school in his hometown where he was noted for his pious temperament and he received his First Communion in 1808 in the Sant'Ansano church from the Barnabite Bishop (and future cardinal) Antonio Maria Cadolini.

[3] Merlini enrolled on 6 July 1820 in a course for the Spiritual Exercises that Saint Gaspare del Bufalo was conducting in the San Felice convent in Giano dell'Umbria.

Pius IX gave the matter consideration but then on 30 June 1849 the French took Rome and returned the Papal States to the pope upon the Roman Republic's capitulation.

His remains were interred in Campo Verano but later exhumed and relocated in March 1946 to the Santa Maria in Trivio church next to his friend Gaspare del Bufalo.

Merlini became titled as Venerable on 10 May 1973 after Pope Paul VI confirmed that the late priest had lived a model life and had practiced heroic virtue to a favorable degree during his lifetime.

Merlini's beatification depends upon the papal confirmation of a miracle attributed to his intercession which is in most cases a healing that neither science or medicine can explain.

On May 23, 2024, Pope Francis, after meeting with Prefect Marcello Semeraro of Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, recognized a miracle attributed to the intercession of Merlini.