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AGOSTINO ROSCELLI 1818-1902 Agostino
Roscelli was born in Casarza Ligure, Italy, on 27 July 1818. His materially poor
family was an example of faith and Christian virtue. An intelligent and
sensitive, but reserved child, Agostino helped care for the family's
sheep. The natural surroundings and the silence of the mountains opened his soul
to a close relationship with God. During a
parish mission in May 1835, he felt called to the priesthood. Financial problems
made it difficult for him to pursue his studies in Genoa, but his tenacity and
intense prayer, combined with the aid of generous people, sup- ported him. Ordained on
19 September 1846, he was appointed curate of St Martin d'Albaro. Then, in 1854,
he was entrusted with pastoral care of the Church of the Consolation where he
spent countless hours in the confessional. A sister who knew him wrote, "People
of every condition and class confidently came to that priest. Enclosed for four
or five hours between the two grates, ignoring the cold, the heat, the fatigue,
he was al- ways serenely ready to welcome all with delicate goodness, with
unaltered patience, with lively and penetrating attention, with the most
appropriate words for each one". Among these there were many young people who
confided their sufferings to him and sought his advice. Seeing the need, he set up his first
residential center in Genoa for the moral, intellectual and
professional training of young women who were in danger of starvation or
falling into prostitution because they had no support. The center met with
immediate success and the seed was planted here for the future religious
congregation that Fr. Roscelli in his characteristic reserve and humility
dismissed as too grand for him. As it happened, God
was to try him through many trials before the congregation's birth. In 1874 he
was appointed chaplain of the provincial orphanage, where he served for 22
years. Here he baptized 8,484 newborn babies and spent himself with a father's
love to reconcile their teenage mothers through the sacrament of Penance. If
this were not enough along with his work in the parish, he also served as a
prison chaplain, caring particularly for those condemned to death. In 1876, with
the encouragement of Pope Pius IX and Archbishop Magnasco, he realized his
dream: he founded the Institute of Sisters of the Immaculate to care for the
residential women's centers he had established. In spite of
being immersed in the most intense
apostolic
activity, Fr. Roscelli never neglected his prayer life. He was always
busy, but he knew how to find many hours to pass in front of the Tabernacle.
"Prayer was his life ... Whoever wanted the Founder had to seek him in the
Chapel. In the long hours (even whole nights) of his prayer, it was his custom
to lean on his left knee, his kneeler shows a groove in the wood in that part".
Fr. Roscelli's apostolic activity was truly fruitful because it flowed from a
genuine mystical and contemplative life. After many trials he completed his
offering at the Motherhouse on 7 May 1902. The first group of Sisters of the Immaculate went overseas to Argentina in 1914. Today, the Congregation continues to thrive serving children, the disabled and the elderly. In the words of Fr. Roscelli, "The charity which Christ commanded excludes no one, nor does it ever let itself be stopped, whatever obstacles it may encounter" Source: L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO  |
Copyright © 2001 [The
Hagiography Circle]. All rights reserved.
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