OUR PASSIONIST HERITAGE
OUR PASSIONIST SAINTS
| Month's Saints:
(Click to read) January Saints Saint Charles of Saint Andrew February Saints Saint Gabriel Possenti March Saints April Saints May Saints Saint Gemma Galgani June Saints Blessed Lorenzo Salvi July Saints Blessed Niceforo Diez Tejerina & The Passionist Martyrs Of Damiel August Saints Blessed Dominic Barberi September Saints Saint Vincent Strambi October Saints Blessed Isidore De Loor Saint Innocencio Caroura Arnua Saint Paul oF The Cross November Saints Blessed Pius Campidelli Blessed Eugene Bossilkov Venerable Mother Mary Crucified Blessed Grimoaldo December Saints Blessed Bernard Mary Silvestrelli |
JANUARY 5 - Saint Charles of Saint Andrew
Saint Charles of Saint Andrew (John Houben) was born at Munstergeleen (The Netherlands) on December 11 1821. He entered the Passionist Novitiate at Ere, Tournai (Belgium) in 1845. He made his religious profession on December 10, 1846 and was ordained to the priesthood on December 21, 1850.
He was appointed to the Passionists' new English foundation in 1852, shortly after the death of Passionist Blessed Dominic Barberi. Following the example of Blessed Dominic, an apostle of Ecumenism, Charles worked hard for the good of souls and the unity of the Church, first in England and later in Ireland, where he died with a great reputation for holiness on January 5, 1893.
A man of great prayer, in the style of Saint Paul of the Cross and the first Passionists, he was noted more for his apostolate of blessing and hearing confessions than for his preaching. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 16, 1988. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on June 3, 2007.
FEBRUARY 27 - Saint Gabriel Possenti
Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows (Possenti) was born at Assisi in Umbria in 1838. While very young, he attended school at Spoleto and seemed to be strongly attracted to the World. However, under the call of God's grace, he entered the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ where he lived so crucified to the world and so intimately united to God that he became a model of all the virtues, especially humility and obedience.
Moreover, he had a very great devotion to the Sorrowful Virgin who was, as it were, the whole reason for his holiness. He died at Isola of Gran Sasso in the Abruzzi on February 27th 1862. He was 24 years of age and had not yet completed his studies for the priesthood.
Near his tomb, there rose a large sanctuary, a place of faith pilgrimages and a centre of religious influence. In 1926 Saint Gabriel was declared joint patron of the Catholic Youth of Italy and in 1959 principal patron of the Abruzzi.
MAY 16 - Saint Gemma Galgani
St. Gemma Galgani
the mystic
of the Passion
Pope Leo XIII had proclaimed a Holy
Year for the opening of the new century. It began on Christmas Eve, 1899,
continuing until Christmas Eve of 1900. Catholics responded with joy to this
Holy Year. To prepare for the Holy Year, missions were held throughout
Italy. In the city of Lucca several Passionists preached the mission at the
cathedral of St. Martin, June 25 to July 9, 1899.
One of the devout women of the city wanted to make the jubilee mission but she did not want to miss the June services at the church of the Visitation in honor of the Sacred Heart which she had been attending. Finally when these devotions closed at the end of June she did go to the cathedral for the mission. To her surprise she saw the missionaries wearing the same religious habit the Passionist youth Gabriel Possenti was wearing when he appeared to her. From that day on she did not miss one mission service. Finally she got up enough courage to talk to one of the missionaries, Father Cajetan. This was the first time she spoke to a Passionist.
This young woman was Gemma Galgani, the mystic of the Passion. Hers is an important part of the Passionist story. It begins near Lucca some twenty years before the Holy Year mission.
On March 12, 1878, a girl was born to Henry and Aurelia Galgani in Camigliano, near Lucca. She was given the name of Gemma. Gemma was eight when her mother died. The following year she received her first Holy Communion. Gino, her seminarian brother, died in 1894. Three years later her father died, in dire financial straits from throat cancer. Gemma was left an orphan and without support.
She now experienced a prolonged, serious sickness all through the winter of 1898-1899. The family moved to Lucca. Doctors were called. There was no hope of recovery. A Sister who attended to her needs knew of Gabriel Possenti, the young Passionist, through the Gianini's, a prominent family in Lucca. This Sister gave Gemma a novena card and the life of Gabriel. Gemma began to pray to him.
One day Gabriel appeared to her, called her his sister, and told her she would wear the same habit he did. He informed her that she would be cured, and that a special grace was being prepared for her. On March 2 she experienced her cure. From March 10 onward she could once again go to church for Mass and Communion.
Then on June 8, 1899, the evening before the Feast of the Sacred Heart, while she was praying the Holy Hour with Jesus in his sufferings, she experienced the deepest love for him. Her own words can describe what took place. "All of a sudden I felt a piercing sorrow for my sins..grief, love, fear, hope encouragement...I found myself in the presence of my dear heavenly Mother...She opened her mantle and covered me with it. At that moment Jesus appeared with all his wounds open; but from those wounds there no longer came forth blood but flames of fire. In an instant those flames came to touch my hands, my feet and my heart....then I found myself kneeling; but I still felt great pain in my hands, feet and heart. I rose to go to bed and became aware that blood was flowing from those parts where I felt pain....those pains did not leave me until three o'clock on Friday - the Feast of the Sacred Heart."
It was in these circumstances that Gemma made the Holy Year mission at the cathedral and spoke to Father Cajetan. He listened to her story and allowed her to take private vows. He also arranged for her to live with the Gianini family, benefactors of the Passionists. Cecilia Gianini took Gemma to church even when the stigmata were present (usually on Thursday evenings to Friday at three). Through Father Cajetan she met the provincial, Father Peter Paul Moreschini (later a bishop), and finally Father Germano Ruoppolo.
Father Germano was at this time forty-nine years old. He had been professed in 1866 at Monte Argentaro, but because of the conditions in Italy, had studied at Ere in Belgium. After his ordination in 1872 he returned to Italy. At the time of his meeting Gemma, he was the postulator general working on the cause for the beatification of St. Gabriel. He was also known as a careful archeological excavator, having worked on the catacombs at the retreat of S. Eutizio near Soriano and then on the Roman ruins under the church of Sts. John and Paul.
More importantly, at this time he was well-acquainted with mystical theology and spiritual writers. Later on he wrote the biography of Gemma. It has been recognized everywhere as a masterful presentation of mysticism and mystical experiences.
Gemma had been going to Bishop Volpi for confession and direction. When Gemma received the stigmata the bishop was not too sure how to counsel her. Father Germano was now able to assure him and Gemma of the authenticity of her graces, even the extraordinary ones.
At times the bishop and Germano differed, even rather seriously, on the direction of Gemma. Germano, when discussing matters with the bishop, would insist on the correctness of his own judgments, but when counseling Gemma, he would advise her to obey the bishop,
In February, 1902 Germano told Gemma to pray to be freed of the external signs of the stigmata. Gemma did pray and she no longer bore the external markings.
Gabriel continued to tell her that she would become a Passionist Nun. In February of 1902 Cecilia Gianini was invited to make a retreat with the nuns, but she was explicitly told not to bring Gemma! Mother Victoria was adamant. Gemma, not only did not become a Passionist, she was not allowed even to visit the convent at Traquinia.
In return the Lord told Gemma that the nuns would come to Lucca and that she should tell Father Germano to work for the foundation of a convent in Lucca. The Nuns did in fact arrive in Lucca in 1905. By that time Gemma had died, on Holy Saturday, April 11, 1903.
After her death Father Germano remembered the new convent at Lucca. On October 3, 1905, he obtained a letter from Pope Pius X, authorizing the foundation of the convent. This was the permission to found; now he needed the financial means to realize it!
When all was finally settled two nuns, Mothers Josepha Armellini, and Gabriel Cozzi, left Tarquinia in 1905 to found the convent at Lucca. A year later in 1906 Euphemia Gianini entered, taking the name Gemma Magdalena. Others soon entered and the community began to grow. Sister Gemma Magdalena Gianini later left the convent to form a new community called the Sisters of St. Gemma.
St. Gemma was canonized in 1939 by Pius XII. She and her spiritual father, Germano Ruoppolo, are buried in the chapel of the new convent at Lucca.
Gemma Galgani was a spiritual daughter of St. Paul of the Cross. She has a message for every Passionist. Her life reveals the most fundamental reality of the Passionist charism, being "on the Cross with Jesus." For each Passionist is called "to suffer many things, to be mocked, despised, and to bear willingly afflictions and vexations" (Original Rule #11).
Yes, Paul of the Cross left the Passionists with a profound mystical spirituality of the Passion. He himself lived this Passion mysticism throughout his life. He asked those who would follow him, both men and women, to "desire only to be on the Cross with Jesus."
To be called to be a Passionist is a calling "to suffer many things," like the suffering servant of Isaiah, like Paul of the Cross who endured a dark night for over forty years, like Jesus himself who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life for the people.
God gave to the Passionist family an outstanding model of this Passion mysticism in the person of Gemma Galgani. In fact she is an extraordinary and almost unique model, one marked with the very wounds of Christ in her body. Her life repeats the frequent advice of St. Paul of the Cross: "put on the Wounds of Christ."
What is even more amazing is that this young woman of twenty-five years was not a Passionist - at least in the canonical sense. She was not allowed even to visit the convent at Tarquinia nor to make a retreat there. During the final years of the nineteenth century, many Passionists were concerned about external fidelity to the written rule of the founder. God raised up this young woman who was not a canonical Passionist, to show the charism of St.Paul demands an inner conformity to the Passion.
Wounded as Jesus was, Gemma also reminds Passionists how they are called to keep the "memory of the Passion, Memoria Passionis" before the people of God. In word and preaching, but also in example and suffering, the Passionist must proclaim the memory of the Passion. For as the original rule states, Passionists are called "to suffer many things," not only for the glory of God and for their own salvation, but also "for the salvation of others." These "many things" also include sufferings missionaries experience in their apostolic ministries, even martyrdom. The present Constitution, formulated at the Renewal Chapter of 1968 and 1970 after the Council, states succinctly this mission of the Passionist: "We seek the unity of our lives and our apostolate in the Passion of Jesus."
Finally, we must remember that Gemma remained a lay person "in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life" (Church #32). Even though she wanted to enter the convent, she was not a religious. In this condition as a lay person she was called to the fullness of Christian holiness. "Under the influence of the Holy Spirit" to use the words of the Council, she undertook to practice the evangelical counsels "privately...to produce in the world a shining witness and model of holiness" (Church #39).
St. Gemma Galgani is needed in our times to be this
witness and model. For "it is evident to everyone," the Council concludes,
"that all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status are called to
the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity"
(Ibid.#40).
SELECTED REFERENCES
La Povera Gemma Saggi Critici Storico-Teologici, Enrico Zoffoli (Rome, 1957)
Blessed Gemma Galgani: The Holy Maid of Lucca, Germano Ruoppolo, C.P. (St. Louis, 1913)
The Cross in My Heart: Life of St. Gemma Galgani Lay-Passionist, Sister Maria Grace, C.P., (Erlanger, KY, 1990).
(text adapted from The Story of the Passionists by Roger Mercurio, C.P. All rights reserved by the Passionist Community)
JUNE 12 - Blessed Lorenzo Salvi
Blessed Lorenzo Maria of St. Francis Xavier (Salvi) was born in Rome on October 30, 1782. He died in Capranica (Viterbo) June 12, 1856.
Blessed Lorenzo professed the Passionist Rule November 20, 1802 and was ordained to the priesthood December 29, 1805. As superior he was most prudent in leading the community. Following in the footsteps of Our Founder, St. Paul of the Cross, his principle apostolate was that of itinerant missionary.
Blessed Lorenzo was also untiring in promoting devotion to the Holy Childhood of Jesus on every occasion by work, example and through his many writings. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II, October1, 1989. He is buried in the Passionist Church of St. Angelo, Vetralla (Viterbo).
JULY 24 - Blessed Niceforo Diez Tejerina and The Passionist Martyrs Of Damiel
Blessed Niceforo of Jesus and Mary (Diez Tejerina) and his 25 martyr companions were all members of the Passionist Community of Daimiel. Their martyrdom took place against the background of the strong anti-clerical climate which was sweeping Spain after the proclamation of the Republic in 1931. The majority were young religious aged between 18 and 21 years of age studying for the Priesthood and the possibility of working one day in South America.
Towards midnight of the July 21/22nd anticipating the possibility of being attacked, the members of the Community, led by the Provincial Fr. Niceforo Diez gathered in the Chapel of the Monastery. They made their last Confession, received Holy Communion and heard the Provincial say 'Inhabitants of Calvary, this is our Gethsemane. Human nature frightened at the prospect of the Steps of the Passion, the same as that of Jesus, grows weak and is intimidated. But Jesus is with us. He comforts us and sustains us. In a few moments we will be with Christ. Inhabitants of Calvary - Courage! Let us die for Christ.'
About 200 men arrived and drove them into the night. Divided into small groups they were martyred at various places over the next three months. Six were martyred on July 23rd at Manganares and on the same day nine at Carabanchel. Two days later three more were killed at Erda. Two months later two were martyred at Carrion de Calatrava on September25th. In the following month the final group of six were martyred on October23rd.
Not one abandoned the group to avoid participation in their fate. The moment of supreme sacrifice had come and all of them faced death with unflinching fortitude and patience for the love of God and Jesus. In actual fact even the soldiers admitted that some of them died with the crucifix in their hands and crying out 'May Christ the King Live!'
Their Memorial is observed July 24th, the available date nearest to the date on which the first group, under the leadership of their Provincial, Blessed Niceforo Tejerina, was martyred. They are the first Beatified Martyrs of the Congregation of the Passion. Pope John Paul II beatified them on October1, 1989.
Martyred in Manganares
July 23rd
Fr. Niceforo Diez (aged 43 Yrs.), Jose Estalayo, student (aged 21 yrs.);
Epilanio Sierra, student (aged 20 yrs.); Abilio Ramos, student (aged 20 yrs.);
Zacarios Fernandez, student (aged 19 yrs.); Fulgencio Calvo, student (aged 19
yrs.);
Martyred in Carabanchel
July 23rd
Fr. German Perez, (aged 30 yrs.); Fr. Felipe Valcabado (aged 62 yrs.); Maurilio
Macho, student (aged 21 yrs.); Jose Oses, student (aged 21 yrs.); Julio
Mediavilla, student (aged 21 yrs.); Jose M. Ruiz, student (aged 21 yrs.);
Laurino Proano, student (aged 20 yrs.); Bro. Anacario Benito, (aged 30 yrs.);
Bro. Felipe Ruiz, (aged 21 yrs.)
Martyred in Erda July 25th
Fr. Pedro Largo, (aged 29 yrs.); Felix Ulgade, student (aged 21 yrs.); Bro.
Benito olana, (aged 38 yrs.)
Martyred in Carrion de
Calatrava September 25th
Fr. John Pedro Bengoa, (aged 46 yrs.); Bro. Pablo M. Leoz, (aged 54 yrs.)
Martyred in
Manzanares October 23rd
Fr. Ildephonso Garcia, (aged 38 yrs.); Fr. Justiniano Cuesta (aged 26 yrs.);
Eufrasio de Celes, student, (aged 21 yrs.); Honorino Carracedo, student (aged 19
yrs.); Tomas Cuartero, student, (aged 21 yrs.) and his brother, Jose M. Cuartero,
student (aged 19 yrs.)
AUGUST 26 - Blessed Dominic Barberi
Dominic Barberi, as a Passionist by title "of the Mother of God," was born of devout farming people in 1792 at Viterbo, Italy. At twenty- two years of age, he experienced the call of God to the apostolate. Leaving his farm work, he entered the Passionists where he manifested extraordinary gifts of mind and heart. After he was ordained to the Priesthood in 1818, he spent himself diligently in teaching, in the ministry of the Word, in the spiritual direction and in writing many philosophical, theological and homiletic works.
Filled with the spirit of Saint Paul of the Cross, he left Italy and went first to Belgium. There he established the Passionists in 1840, and went on to England in 1842. He was now responding to a Divine call that had always been with him - to work for unity among God's people in England.
In the space of eight years he had founded four Passionist Communities and exercised an extensive apostolate by preaching missions and retreats throughout the country. His writings and personal holiness brought many to the faith; most prominent among those he received into the Church was John Henry Newman.
Broken finally by his labors, he died at Reading on August 17, 1849, at the age of 57. He was enrolled among the Blessed by Pope Paul VI during the Second Vatican Council, on October 23, 1963.
SEPTEMBER 24 - Saint Vincent Strambi
Saint Vincent Strambi was born at Civitavecchia, in Italy, in 1745. A short time after his ordination to the Priesthood he entered the recently founded Passionist Congregation.
Traveling throughout most of Italy, he endeavored to promote the Christian life among the people by preaching on the Passion. He wrote hagiographical books, including a Life of St. Paul of the Cross, and devotional books, the most significant of which was that on the Precious Blood. Being an outstanding 'spiritual director,' he directed, among others, Saint Gaspar del Bufalo and Blessed Anna Maria Taigi.
Appointed Bishop of Macerata and Tolentino, he showed himself to be a true shepherd of his flock and promoted the reform of the clergy and the people with apostolic zeal. In the political upheavals of the time, he was a fearless advocate of the freedom of the Church and chose exile in preference to an unlawful oath of loyalty to Napoleon. When he returned to his Diocese after exile, he once again manifested his deep pastoral concern and extraordinary charity for the poor.
Called by Pope Leo XII to become his personal advisor; he died in Rome on January 1, 1824.
October 6 -
Blessed Isidore DeLoor of St. Joseph
Blessed Isidore De Loor, known in the Passionist Congregation as Isidore of Saint Joseph, was born April 13, 1881, in the small town of Vrasene, located in the diocese of Gent-Gand, in Eastern Flanders. He was from a family of farmers, and he grew up loving his work in the fields.
At the age of twenty-six he felt the call to the religious life, and entered the novitiate of the Passionist Congregation in Ere, where he was received as a lay-brother. He professed his religious vows on September 13, 1908. Thereafter he humbly served several communities of the Congregation; to his community service was joined an especially intense life of prayer and penance, in keeping with the spirit of the Congregation.
His right eye had to be removed in 1911, because of a tumor. Among the religious of the congregation, and among the laity, he was admired for his charity and simplicity, his dedication to work and his spirit of recollection. Having suffered through several months of intense pain, he succumbed to cancer and pleurisy on October 6, 1916.
Blessed Isidore was only thirty-five years of age, and had lived as a religious for only nine years. Many referred to him as "the good Brother" and "the Brother of the Will of God." Pope John Paul II, declared him Blessed the September 30, 1984.
OCTOBER 9 - Saint Innocencio Caroura Arnua
Saint Innocencio of Mary Immaculate (Emanuele Canoura Arnau) was born on March 10, 1887 in Santa Lucia del Valle de Oro, Diocese of Mondonedo, Spain. Professed a Passionist the July 27, 1905 and ordained a Priest September 20, 1913, he was most zealous in exercising this ministry in various communities of his Province.
During the so-called "Revolution of Asturias of 1934"; while he was celebrating Mass with the De La Salle Brothers, he together with eight of the Brothers, was taken prisoner by those who were filled with hatred for religion. All were executed on October 9, 1934. Inocencio, together with the Brothers who were martyred with him, was beatified on April 19, 1990.
They were canonized and declared Saints on October 21, 1999, by Pope John Paul II.
OCTOBER 19 - Saint Paul oF The Cross
St. Paul of the Cross was born on January 3, 1694 in Ovada, Italy. Nurtured by a Christian family home and active in his local Church his prayer life developed rapidly in his teens. At 26 he left home to become a hermit.
He believed that the troubles of the world were a result of the forgetting of the Passion of Jesus. He wanted all to keep alive the Memory of the Sufferings of the Crucified One. This, he believed, began in prayer at the foot of the Cross.
Ordained a priest at 33 years of age he lived his beliefs. For the next 45 years he preached missions bringing the message of the Cross and the Love of the Crucified Jesus to people. Miracles and conversions abounded. Many learned to pray and to live a true Christian life.
All his life he struggled to found a Religious Community who would accept his ideals and carry on his work. When he was 47 his first followers - the Passionists - appeared on the streets of Italy. Over the next thirty years he founded 12 Passionist Communities with 176 religious priests and brothers. He died at the age of 81. Since then, his followers, have continued the work of keeping alive the Memory of Christ Crucified.
NOVEMBER 3 - Blessed Pius Campidelli of St. Aloysius
Pius of St. Aloysius (Gigino Campidelli) was born April 29, 1868 at Trebbio in the diocese of Rimini, Italy and was the son of farmers. He came to know the Passionists through a parish mission. Eagerly entering the Passionist way of life, he pronounced his vows on April 20, 1884. Following the example of St. Aloysius Gonzaga and Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother, in the seven years of his religious life he became a perfect model of the regular observance and of a joyful, heroic practice of all the virtues. He was especially devoted to the Eucharist and to our Lady. While preparing for the subdiaconate he was afflicted with a grave illness. He died on November 2, 1889, while offering his life as a sacrifice for the Church, the Pope and his beloved home region of Romagna. Pope John Paul II beatified him on, November 17, 1985.
NOVEMBER 13 -
Blessed Eugene Bossilkov
The Passionist Bishop and Martyr, Eugene Bossilkov, was born November 16, 1900 in Belene (Bulgaria), a village in the Danube Valley. His family were farmers and Catholics of the Latin Rite. In 1914 he began his studies with the Passionists, who had been missionaries in northern Bulgaria since the late 1700's. He studied in Passionist seminaries in Belgium and Holland, and in 1920 became a professed member of that community. He took the name Eugene, and to the vows taken by religious, he joined another vow taken by the Passionists: to keep in constant memory the Passion of Jesus. In 1924, he returned to Bulgaria to continue his theological studies and was ordained by the Passionist Bishop Damian Theden in 1926.
NOVEMBER 17 - Venerable Mother Mary Crucified
Costantini
In eighteenth century Italy there was in every city and town one or more convents of religious women, called "nuns." Ever since the Council of Trent such convents were strictly bound by cloister, which meant that no one could enter within the convent, nor could the nuns leave the enclosed area. The nuns devoted themselves to prayer and penance within the convent walls. They were supported by the charity of benefactors and by the "dowry" they brought with them when they entered.
There were also communities of sisters who engaged in ministries to young girls and women. They took religious vows but they were not as strictly cloistered as were the nuns. Usually their communities were under the complete control of the local bishops, and frequently their rule had not been approved by the Holy See.
From the very first years as a hermit Paul Daneo began the ministry of spiritual direction. Shortly after his forty days retreat he requested permission to give the spiritual conferences to the Augustinian Nuns of Castellazzo. Later he wrote several letters of spiritual direction to one of the nuns.
Paul was aware of the holiness of many nuns, but he also realized some of the problems they experienced. After his ordination and on his return to Monte Argentaro he would gladly give retreats to nuns when he was conducting a mission at the nearby churches.
In 1739 Father Paul was asked to give the retreat to the Benedictine Nuns at the convent of St. Lucy in Corneto (now called Tarquinia). He came in the black habit and barefoot. As in other convents, he spoke about the nun's call to the interior life of prayer, solitude and penance. Of course, he also urged the nuns to meditate upon the sufferings of Jesus. His presence and preaching stirred the nuns to renewed efforts in striving for religious perfection.
In the course of this retreat one of the nuns, known then as Sister Mary Candida of the Crucified, opened her heart to him, to tell him the story of her life and the interior graces God was giving her.
Paul recognized in this young nun one whom God was calling. He told her of his own "dream" of one day founding a convent of Passionist Nuns who would spend their life in prayer and penance in memory of the Passion of Jesus.
Paul had in fact for many years realized that women as well as men were called to live his spirituality of the Passion. One of his first "converts" was a young woman of the Grazi family of Orbetello, Agnes by name. Under Paul's direction Agnes advanced in prayer to mystical union with the Crucified Christ. Paul felt that perhaps one day she would join his convent for Passionist Nuns. When she died at an early age Paul accepted God's will but the dream remained.
Later he began the direction of a Poor Clare Nun of Piombino, Sister Cherubina Bresciani. Again he mentioned to her the possibility of a community of women dedicated to the Passion. Another holy woman whom Paul was directing received a vision of the "doves" mourning over the wounded Christ on the Cross. Paul saw this as a vision of his future daughters. But nothing eventuated although Paul continued to hope.
As she listened to Father Paul, Candida realized that it was he of whom the Lord had spoken to her. With tears in her heart she told him of her "dream," of how God had been working in her life.
Sister Candida's (later known as Mother Mary Crucified) life story begins.
On August 18, 1713, the very year Paul Daneo had experienced his "conversion", a daughter was born to the Costantini family of Corneto. She was baptized Faustina. When she was fourteen, she too felt the call to a life of prayer and penance. But she had to help her father raise the family after the early death of her mother. Later when she wanted to enter an austere convent, her father told her that the only convent she could enter was the Benedictine convent of St. Lucy in Corneto. This she did, even though she felt the Lord really wanted her in a stricter convent.
Sister Candida made profession of her vows on November 22, 1734 (the 14th anniversary of Paul's reception of the Passionist habit). As she handed the signed document of her vows to the Mother Prioress she whispered to Jesus: "In virtue of your most holy Passion, accept me as a victim of your holy love." She prayed to Jesus to share in his Passion. "I often repeated to him, 'You are a spouse of blood; I want to be your true follower.'" When tempted with fierce temptations she heard the invitation to "enter into the Sacred Heart" with the moving words of the Song of Songs: "Come, my love, hide in the cleft of the rock."
All this she told Father Paul. Years later she remembered that wonderful day: "A few years after my profession I got to know the Venerable Paul of the Cross on the occasion when he came to give the spiritual exercises to the religious of the convent of St. Lucy... After Paul gave the retreat, especially the first one, one could see the great reform of life in the convent. All the religious began to treat one another with greater charity, to perform more frequent acts of humility, to stay away from the parlor-window and to observe greater silence." She added: "The first time the Servant of God came to give the spiritual exercises at the convent of St. Lucy he was wearing a very poor rough tunic, with a mantle, but barefoot and without a hat or berretino. Just to see him moved one to compassion and devotion." From that date onward Mother Mary Crucified as she was now called, began a frequent and long correspondence with Father Paul. Only 32 letters have been preserved and recently published in an English translation. Most have unfortunately been lost. Mother M. Crucified, testified that she even burned some lest others read about God's gifts to her.
Paul continued to direct her as one very special. Years later Paul recalled their first meeting. In his Christmas letter of 1764 he wrote of it: "I hope to see you clothed in the same habit of the Most Holy Passion of Jesus Christ which I wear. God entrusted your soul to me many years ago."
Later he wrote again: "If God will give me life and strength to see the foundation through, it is most certain that you shall be the first to be clothed in the habit of the most holy Passion. I hope to give it to you with my own hands for the glory of Jesus Christ and Holy Mary. However, keep this as a secret in your heart..."(June 3, 1766).
But Paul saw the convent of the Nuns as belonging to the Institute of the Passion. He wanted the Passionist Nuns to be the "Second Order" of his institute, as the Poor Clares are with the Franciscans and the Carmelite Nuns among the Carmelites. This meant that the first convent could not be built until the male branch was firmly established as a religious order with solemn vows, clerical jurisdiction and exemption, subject only to the Holy See. Until solemn vows were granted Paul did not take steps to found the Passionist convent for his many spiritual daughters.
But God had other plans. When Mother Mary Crucified was sick in the infirmary in 1741 Jesus appeared to her and said: "Rise up now. I will restore your health, but on the condition that in due time you found a monastery of nuns who will have as their purpose the honoring of my sorrowful Passion. You yourself will have to enter it, and you must cooperate in its foundation."
Paul continued to wait for solemn vows. When a Portuguese priest, Don Joseph Carboni, invited Mother M. Crucified to establish a community devoted to the Passion in a convent he was building in Rome, she thought it was time to move. Paul warned against such an action. Eventually Don Carboni's request fell through.
At this time her younger brother was killed by robbers in the family home. Her two brothers, Dominic and Canon Nicholas, decided to build a convent in the memory of their slain brother. But when the family became involved in the writing of the rule for "their" convent, Paul washed his hands of the whole affair!
Solemn vows were denied Paul in 1760 by Pope Clement XIII. Paul's community would never become an Order with a female branch. If the convent of nuns devoted to the Passion was to be founded, Mother M. Crucified felt that she herself should go to Rome to present her case to the Pope. Paul wrote back that this is not how one proceeds. Had he forgotten his own insistence on going to Rome in 1721 or had he learned from that experience? Mother M. Crucified did not go to the Pope. In fact she did not have to go, for at the death of Pope Clement XIII (Feb. 28,1769) the new pope (Clement XIV) would be most kind to Father Paul.
Pope Clement invited Paul to visit him. Paul told him of his many trials all these years in attempting to found a convent for the Passionist Nuns. The Pope listened with fatherly concern. In a short time Clement XIV issued a papal bull giving Paul's congregation all the rights and privileges of a religious order, even jurisdiction and papal exemption. He arranged that the Monastery of Sts. John and Paul be given to the Passionists. Finally he approved the rule Paul had written for the Passionist Nuns and decreed the opening of the convent at Corneto. Mother Mary Crucified was allowed to transfer from the convent of St. Lucy to this new convent, together with the other women whom Paul had been directing.
The great day finally came, May 3, 1771. The ten women, together with Mother Mary Crucified, were given the Passionist habit and entered the new convent of the Presentation. The bishop and the entire town of Corneto celebrated. Father John Mary Cioni, Paul's confessor, preached the homily. Some miles away in Rome Paul lay on his sick bed in the hospice of the Crucified. He never got to Corneto to see Mother Mary Crucified and the first Passionists. He himself did not give her the habit. Four years later he would be dead.
From his sick bed he assisted her with letters and with his prayers and sufferings. Two years after the solemn opening he wrote: "May you be the model for the Daughters of the Passion. They should mourn perpetually for the love of the Crucified Lord, not only by the habit they wear, but even more so in their hearts, their minds and their actions. In this way they shall heal his holy wounds by the continual practice of the virtues, since this is the purpose for the foundation of their Institute" (May 12, 1773).
In the founding of the Passionist Nuns' community Paul's role is clear. The "charism" was originally the Holy Spirit's gift to Paul. His was the task of arranging for the canonical foundation, by reason of his friendship with Pope Clement XIV. He too had written the rule which the pope "welcomed" as God's gift to the Church.
Mother Mary Crucified had her own role to fulfill as the first novice mistress and superior. It was left to her to explain the spirit of the rule to the first nuns. And it was her role to serve as model and example of the Passionist way of life for her small originating community and for all Passionist Nuns in the centuries to follow. She was interpreter and model of the Passionist charism as shared and lived by these cloistered religious women.
And cloistered the Passionist Nuns were. St. Paul insisted on this. For according to the Canon Law of the time (since the Council of Trent) only cloistered women were truly "religious." Cloister was very important for Paul. He knew the abuses in so many convents of his times. He knew the requirements of Canon Law. To assure that the "female branch" of his institute would be recognized as "real" religious and would perdure in the Church, he even inserted in the rule legislation for the "vow of enclosure." For Paul, however, the enclosure was more than a necessary legality. For he wanted the nuns to be truly contemplative, "Brides of Christ" he calls them, "Daughters of the Sacred Passion," "Doves mourning over the wounds of Christ." The cloister would enable them to devote themselves to contemplative prayer.
Paul also realized the needs of his times. The nuns were to take "the vow to promote devotion to the Passion of Christ" as did the fathers and brothers. Of course, they could not fulfill this vow by preaching. Paul wanted them to fulfill it by their life of contemplative prayer and penance. Their prayer would continue throughout the day and into the middle of the night. Their penance consisted in perpetual fasting and abstinence, in going barefoot, and in other austerities.
The Second Vatican Council almost seems to be speaking of Mother Mary Crucified's fervent community when it states: "Let no one think that by their consecration religious have become strangers to their fellow men and women or useless citizens of this earthly city...In a more profound sense these same religious are united with them in the heart of Christ and cooperate with them spiritually" (The Church, #46).
Zealous man that he was, Paul also discovered other ways for the nuns to fulfill the Passion vow. He left norms for one of the sisters to teach Christian doctrine to "young girls seven years of age or older," to prepare young girls for the reception of their First Communion (then normally received at the age of 12). He provided, however, that those to be thus instructed would remain "outside the cloister."
Paul's zeal led him further. He knew that women, as well as men, need the helps of the spiritual exercises. He had already provided for rooms to be set aside in his monasteries for men to make a retreat from time to time. He put this same provision in the nuns' rule, even allowing such women to enter "within the enclosure" with the permission of the bishop.
All this St. Paul of the Cross did to establish the Passionist Nuns in the Church. Paul is indeed the "founder". Mother Mary Crucified as the superior and guide of the first convent has earned the title of "foundress of the first convent". Through this role and precisely because of her profound sharing in Paul's charism she is also called "co-foundress" with St. Paul of the Passionist Religious Family.
Mother Mary Crucified died November 16, 1787. In 1982 Pope John Paul II approved the document declaring that she had practiced heroic virtue and should be called "Venerable." Passionists everywhere await the day of her beatification.
NOVEMBER 18 - Blessed Grimoaldo of the Purification
Grimoaldo of the Purification (Fernando
Santamaria) was born May 4, 1883 in Pontecorvo, Frosinone, the oldest of
five children. He professed his Passionist vows at the age of 17 on March 6,
1900 and began his studies for the priesthood at the Ceccano retreat. Two years
later he contracted acute meningitis and died on November 18, 1902. His rapid
ascent to the heights of perfection are attributed to his exceptional devotion
to Mary Immaculate, to whom he had been consecrated as a child. Pope John Paul
II declared him Blessed on January 29, 1995.
December 9 - Blessed Bernard Mary Silvestrelli
Blessed Bernard Mary of Jesus (known as Caesar Silvestrelli before becoming a Passionist) was born at Rome on November 7, 1831 of the noble Silvestrelli-Gozani family. He was baptized the same day, and received the sacrament of Confirmation on June 7, 1840. He was ordained a Priest on Monte Argentario on December 22, 1855. He made his religious profession as a Passionist on April 28, 1857 at the novitiate at Morrovalle where his companion was the future Saint Gabriel of Our Mother of Sorrows.
He was quickly called upon to fulfill various ministries in the service of the Passionist Congregation: Director of Students, Master of Novices, Rector, Provincial Consultor and, during the years 1878-88 and 1893-1907, Superior General. Strenuous in upholding the spirit of the Congregation, he gave the Passionists a great apostolic thrust in the world. Under his enlightened and vigilant guidance six new Provinces were founded, and those which had been suppressed by the governments of Italy and France were reorganized. Having resigned the office of Superior General, he received from the Pope the title of "Honorary General" for life.
He retired to the Passionist Monastery at Moricone where he died on December 9, 1911 after a serious fall. He was eighty years of age. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 16, 1988.
