November 25, 2018 - "Saint Francesco Spinelli"

On Sunday, October 14, 2018, Pope Francis canonized Blessed Paul VI, Blessed Oscar Romero, Blessed Vincent Romano, Blessed Francesco Spinelli, Blessed Nazaria March Mesa, Blessed Nunzio Sulprizio, and Blessed Katharina Kasper.  A few weeks ago I wrote about Saint Paul VI.  I want to continue writing about these newly canonized saints.  Today I am writing about Saint Francesco Spinelli.  I am going to base my remarks about him on the short biography published recently in the English edition of L’Osservatore Romano.
 
Born on April 14, 1853 in Milan, Italy, Francesco Spinelli received a solid cultural and spiritual education and later studied theology at the Seminary of Bergamo.  He was ordained a priest on October 17, 1875.  While visiting Rome for the Jubilee being held that year, Francesco had a mystical experience in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major.  As he knelt in prayer before the crib of the Child Jesus, he had a vision of young women in adoration before the most Blessed Sacrament.
 
On his return to Bergamo, he began to dedicate himself wholly to pastoral ministry.  In addition to running an evening school and assisting the poor, he taught religion classes and served as a spiritual guide to several women’s religious communities.
 
In 1882 Father Spinelli met Caterina Comensoli, a young woman who wished to be consecrated.  Together they decided to form a new congregation, and the Institute of Sisters Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament was established on December 15, 1882.
 
Capable of discernment and of reading the signs of the times, Father Spinelli structured the new religious family as an innovative, flexible institute that included a proper business activity:  textile production.  This enabled him to provide dignified employment to vulnerable people who would have had great difficulty in finding work elsewhere.  The fledgling Institute expanded rapidly and its houses soon welcomed the poor, the sick, and those with physical and mental challenges.
 
Due to a series of serious misunderstandings, lack of support, and administrative carelessness, the Institute suffered a financial collapse and in 1889 Father Spinelli was forced to step aside and leave Bergamo.  Sister Comensoli remained at the Institute with a group who later took the name Sacramentine Sisters.  Meanwhile, Father Spinelli moved to Rivolta d’Adda in the Diocese of Cremona.  He was followed by a group of Sisters who continued to call themselves Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament, taking vows of perpetual adoration and service to society’s most marginalized and rejected.
 
Father Spinelli offered a plan for an unadorned religious life that was centered on love of God and neighbor and nourished by constant prayer.
 
Widely renowned as a most holy man, Father Spinelli died on February 6, 1913.  He was beatified by Saint John Paul II on June 21, 1992.
Until next week,
Fr. John