Several weeks ago in the Province Forum Board there was a question about the relationship between St. Gabriel Possenti, C.P., Blessed Bernard Mary Silvestrelli, C.P., and St. Gemma Galgani.
I replied to the query be adding the name of Fr. Germano Ruoppolo, C.P., to the triad because of the important role he played in the lives of all three of the previously mentioned.
Since today is the birthday of Fr. Germano Ruoppolo, C.P., I am pasting the comments that I made then into this day's blog of the Office of Mission Effectiveness. I will follow up with more tomorrow.
As we say in Rome, "buona lettura"!
Bernard Mary Silvestrelli lived from Nov 7, 1831 to Dec 9, 1911. Gabriel Possenti was born Mar 1, 1838, and died on February 27, 1862. St. Gemma Galgani was born on Mar 12, 1878, and died on Apr 11, 1903.
Gemma was introduced to the person and life of Gabriel Possenti through the biography she was given, a biography written by the General Postulator of the Congregation, in order to promote the cause of Gabriel for the honors of the altar. That man was Fr. Germano Ruoppolo (born Jan 17, 1850; died Dec 11, 1909). When you add Fr. Germano to the cast, everyone comes together in a biographical synchronicity that makes one hope that Fr. Germano will someday have the status of Gemma, Gabriel and Bernard Mary.
Here are some of the details of their interaction:
Bernard Mary Silvestrelli began his novitiate at Monte Argentario in 1854; he left the novitiate a month later, unable to maintain the rigorous nature of novitiate life. However, he stayed on at the Presentation Retreat, prepared for ordination, and was ordained there on Dec 22, 1855. A year later, he reapplied for the novitiate, and was accepted, transferring to Morrovale, where he was vested on April 27, 1856. In September of that year, additional novices entered from Spoleto, Francesco Possenti among them. The Vice-Master of novices at Morrovale was Fr. Norberto Cassinelli, whom he shared with the later saint, Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother.
Fr. Silvestrelli was professed on April 28. 1857. Gabriel died five years later, on Feb 27, 1862. Three years later, in 1865, Bernard Mary Silvestrelli was the novice master at the novitiate in the Scala Santa Community of Rome. Beginning his novitiate at that time was Vincenzo Ruoppolo, who was given the name "Germano". The two would give outstanding leadership to the Congregation in a number of critical offices and ministries. Bernard Mary Silvestrelli went on to lead the Congregation as Superior General over five elections, first elected in 1878, and elected for the last time in 1905. He resigned the office in 1889, but was persuaded (...it is said by a vision of Gabriel Possenti) to accept the election of the General Chapter of 1893. Germano Ruoppolo served as director of students, "lector", General Secretary and Postulator General. He was a General Consultor, and he authored texts on philosophy and theology for seminary use. Outside the Congregation, he was a member of the Papal Archeological Commission, and was nominated for the bishopric of the Mission in Bulgaria, but declined the office.
It was his biography of Gabriel Possenti that came into the hands of Gemma Galgani, and from visions that she had of both Gabriel and an unknown, grey-haired priest, that she came to recognize in Germano Ruoppolo the spiritiual director that God has singled out for her.
Throughout most of this time that Germano was working on excavating the "Houses" of Sts. John and Paul under the basilica in Rome, while he was directing souls, teaching students, and more...he was working alongside of Bernard Mary Silvestrelli, the Superior General. The two of them were the "glue" that connected the lives of St Gemma Galgani and St Gabriel Possenti.
Biographies worth reading, all four of them.
Fr. Arthur Carrillo, C.P., J.C.L.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
January 5: St Charles of Mt Argus, Passionist
Today, January 5, 2011, the Church celebrates the life of a Passionist Religious, born in the Netherlands, who entered the Congregation in Belgium, and spent most of his religious life in Ireland.
We join with our Passionist Brothers in Holland, Belgium and, especially, Ireland, in celebrating the sanctity of this brother of ours.
Rather than reposting the fine work already done by the province of St. Patrick to spread knowledge of his life, you are invited to visit the website which they have dedicated to Charles Houben, who came to be "Saint Charles of Mount Argus".
Link to the Website of St. Patrick's Passionist Province
Monday, January 3, 2011
January 3, Birthday of Paul of the Cross, part two
Anna Maria Massari, mother of St. Paul of the Cross, was born in Liguria on August 15, 1672. Her family came to live in Ovada, either because of the risky political situation already referred to in the life of Luchino Daneo which perdured throughout northern Italy on account of the impending war of the Spanish Succession; or because of their own desire to explore mercantile interests. Besides a strong involvement in local politics, her parents, Giambattista and Maria Caterina, were involved in the pious societies of the town, and she became an inscribed member of the Oratory of the Annunication in 1684. It was to this Oratory that Luchino Daneo was also inscribed.
Two years after the death of his first wife, Luchino and Anna Maria were married; she was twenty years old.
Throughout the testimonies of those who knew her, there is a constant reference to her piety, her culture, her humility and her fidelity to her marriage. Even St. Paul of the Cross, preaching a mission in the town of Camerino, let slip a distinct praise of his mother, "If my soul is saved, it will be very much due to the formation I received from my mother!"
Paul had left home definitively in 1721. It was the year after the birth of his youngest sister, Caterina. His father would live on another 6 years, dying on July 27, 1727. The death was so unexpected, that there was not time to call the brothers, Paul and John Baptist to their father's deathbed. They were in the first months of their priestly ordination, and Paul promised their mother, in a letter of sympathy, to get home as soon as they could free themselves from current obligations.
She lived as a widow for another nineteen years, before departing this life on September 10, 1746.
In the letters of St. Paul of the Cross, #463, we have the letter which he wrote from San Angelo on September 30, 1746, to his brothers and sisters.
He speaks of the learnings he, and they, had received from their mother: "Even here in this valley of tears, with her example and fervent admonitions she always tried to urge all of us to run in the way of perfection and holiness....Now we must not forget her holy instructions and example, and by imitating always her constant devotion, patience, and resignation we must be able to sing with her the mercies of God in that grand Kingdom of Glory."
As we commemorate the entry into temporal life of our Holy Founder, Paul of the Cross, we can also give gratitude to God for the gift of honorable and pious parents, through whom the vocation to a life of obedience to the will of God became the guiding light of their son's life. Out of the simplicity and poverty of their lives was born the fine-tuned sensitivity to the Passion of Jesus that is the spirit of the Congregation which he founded.
Two years after the death of his first wife, Luchino and Anna Maria were married; she was twenty years old.
Throughout the testimonies of those who knew her, there is a constant reference to her piety, her culture, her humility and her fidelity to her marriage. Even St. Paul of the Cross, preaching a mission in the town of Camerino, let slip a distinct praise of his mother, "If my soul is saved, it will be very much due to the formation I received from my mother!"
Paul had left home definitively in 1721. It was the year after the birth of his youngest sister, Caterina. His father would live on another 6 years, dying on July 27, 1727. The death was so unexpected, that there was not time to call the brothers, Paul and John Baptist to their father's deathbed. They were in the first months of their priestly ordination, and Paul promised their mother, in a letter of sympathy, to get home as soon as they could free themselves from current obligations.
She lived as a widow for another nineteen years, before departing this life on September 10, 1746.
In the letters of St. Paul of the Cross, #463, we have the letter which he wrote from San Angelo on September 30, 1746, to his brothers and sisters.
He speaks of the learnings he, and they, had received from their mother: "Even here in this valley of tears, with her example and fervent admonitions she always tried to urge all of us to run in the way of perfection and holiness....Now we must not forget her holy instructions and example, and by imitating always her constant devotion, patience, and resignation we must be able to sing with her the mercies of God in that grand Kingdom of Glory."
As we commemorate the entry into temporal life of our Holy Founder, Paul of the Cross, we can also give gratitude to God for the gift of honorable and pious parents, through whom the vocation to a life of obedience to the will of God became the guiding light of their son's life. Out of the simplicity and poverty of their lives was born the fine-tuned sensitivity to the Passion of Jesus that is the spirit of the Congregation which he founded.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
January 3; Birthday of Paul Francis Daneo
From the testimonies of the various Processes for Beatification and Canonization, it is generally held that the family of Paul Francis Daneo was of noble background, but had fallen on harder economic times by the generation of our Holy Founder.
He was born in Ovada, in the diocese of Alessandria (Alessándria), in the western Lombardy region, adjacent to the Piedmont district, north of Genoa, the coast city.
A document presented to the first process lists the “capostipes” in 1393 of “Dominus Jacobus Daneus, Nobilis Decurio [military commander] Alexandria”.
The father of Paul Francis Daneo was Luchino (Luke) Daneo, born December 7, 1659, in Castellazzo. He would be the father of 16 children, none of whom would have children of their own.
The family was from Alessandria, but about 10 years before the birth of Paul of the Cross, Luchino Daneo moved to Ovada, a town less in turmoil over the anticipated conflicts of the War of the Spanish Succession. That's the official/sanitized version of the temporary domicile in Ovada.
According to Fr. Enrico Zoffoli, C.P., there is an explanatory letter, on the record in the Processes, from the parish priest of San Carlo, in Castellazzo, 1822, which refers to an agreement of Luchino Daneo to fulfill a contract which included the movement of contraband. The reason given for Luchino Daneo was to “feed his family”, which gives another indication of the hard times to which the fates of the family had fallen. Luchino Daneo left Castellazzo in a self-imposed exile.
Paul, himself, when seeking permission to be ordained (1726), annotated his place of birth with the following notation: “born in the diocese of Acqui, in 1694...as an unintended consequence of my father's living there for business reasons”.
Once settled in Ovada, Luchino Daneo had a textile business; in 1685 he asked for the hand of the Archpriest's niece, Maria Caterina de Grancis. They married on February 25, 1685. It was a happy and blessed marriage, but was childless. Five years married, she died on August 14, 1690.
His family encouraged him to remarry, and so he decided to marry Anna Maria Massari. The marriage took place on January 6, 1692. On January 4, 1693, a girl-child was born to the couple, but died on the third day of her life. No name is recorded for her. Paul Francis Daneo was born to the couple in the following year, January 3, 1694.
Fourteen other children were born to the Danei: John Baptist and Anthony became Religious, Anthony remaining a priest after leaving the Congregation; Giuseppe, Teresa and Caterina never married. Ten children died in infancy.
(Rather than draw this out further, a second installment, focused on the mother of St. Paul of the Cross, will be posted on the blog tomorrow, January 4.)
Friday, December 24, 2010
Christmas, 2010
Greetings and Christmas Blessings to all of our Passionist Family.
In preparing for this culmination of our Advent expectation, most of us will spend some time writing and sending Christmas cards. We inscribe a few words of gratitude for the year we have shared, and we express our hope for the year ahead. Depending on the spiritual inclinations we cultivate, we may acknowledge our faith in Jesus as the Word Made Flesh, and His birth as the birth of our Savior.
Two hundred and ninety years ago, throughout Advent, our Spiritual Father, St. Paul of the Cross, made his 40-day retreat at the church of San Carlo, Castellazzo. So much of what we know of the history of the Congregation and the history of his Inspiration is rooted in the diary which he kept during these retreat. It is no wonder that in the "Annuario Pontificio", the "Papal Yearbook", the founding year for the Passionist Congregation is given as 1720.
It seemed only natural to share with you the electronic Christmas Card that came from our Passionists in Portugal. It speaks eloquently of the Incarnation, and it quotes from St. Paul of the Cross.
[On this holy Christmas night I will celebrate the Divine Mysteries for all our poor Congregation, and I will place the hearts of the professed and novices in the sacred hands of the gentle Infant so that he may enliven them, strengthen them, inflame them, and sanctify them to do great things for the glory of God. St. Paul of the Cross (1746/Ltr. 470)]
May God bless each of your families and yourselves during these Christmas days.
In preparing for this culmination of our Advent expectation, most of us will spend some time writing and sending Christmas cards. We inscribe a few words of gratitude for the year we have shared, and we express our hope for the year ahead. Depending on the spiritual inclinations we cultivate, we may acknowledge our faith in Jesus as the Word Made Flesh, and His birth as the birth of our Savior.
Two hundred and ninety years ago, throughout Advent, our Spiritual Father, St. Paul of the Cross, made his 40-day retreat at the church of San Carlo, Castellazzo. So much of what we know of the history of the Congregation and the history of his Inspiration is rooted in the diary which he kept during these retreat. It is no wonder that in the "Annuario Pontificio", the "Papal Yearbook", the founding year for the Passionist Congregation is given as 1720.
It seemed only natural to share with you the electronic Christmas Card that came from our Passionists in Portugal. It speaks eloquently of the Incarnation, and it quotes from St. Paul of the Cross.
[On this holy Christmas night I will celebrate the Divine Mysteries for all our poor Congregation, and I will place the hearts of the professed and novices in the sacred hands of the gentle Infant so that he may enliven them, strengthen them, inflame them, and sanctify them to do great things for the glory of God. St. Paul of the Cross (1746/Ltr. 470)]
May God bless each of your families and yourselves during these Christmas days.
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