Rome (Italy). Number 32 of the Horizons Series ‘Archives and memories of holiness’, has been published. These are the Acts of the Study Congress ‘Archives of holiness’ that took place in Nizza Monferrato on October 21, 2017.
This reflection on Archives and memories of holiness, edited by Grazia Loparco and Paola Cuccioli, stems from the collaboration between the Studies Center of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences Auxilium and the Historical Archive of the Piedmontese Province of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA) of Nizza Monferrato.
The text opens with a general contribution on official sanctity by Vincenzo Criscuolo, General Relator of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, who introduces the journey of the FMA Institute walking on the paths of holiness edited by Piera Cavaglià and Sylwia Ciezkowska, as well as reflections on the specific character of the archives, which we must safeguard and look for the traces of an educational experience, which modulates the documentation and the testimonies also of “ordinary” Salesian holiness by Grazia Loparco.
The activities of recognition and ordering of the precious historical archive of the Mother House of the FMA, presented with more breadth by Paola Cuccioli, show in this sense, the intention to open ourselves up to interest in the vast study and social community, also thanks to the access to the information system of CEI-AR by Gianluca Popolla.
The documentary testimonies of Teresa Valsé Pantellini by Sylwia Ciezkowska, Vice Postulator, and of the servants of God, the spouses Rosetta and Giovanni Gheddo by Lia Lafronte, Postulator attached to Nizza Monferrato, highlight the importance of conservation in the search for evidence.
From the reading there emerges the memory of an identity, also collective, in the case of a religious family, which is always conditioned by those who preserve or dispose of documentation. Moreover, that holiness, even the ‘ordinary’ one, has a component of originality that overcomes the virtuous schematics in which one is tempted to circumscribe the experience and therefore opens to the surprises of the Spirit.
This is why the volume, moving from the FMA archives, intends to offer points for reflection to anyone with an interest in memory as a seed and a “key to access” the future.
