Rome (Italy). On 20 October 2024, on World Mission Day in Rome, in a crowded St Peter’s Square and in celebration colored by the scarves with the new Saints and flags of pilgrims from all over the world, Pope Francis presided the Holy Mass with the canonization of 14 Blesseds:
Eleven ‘martyrs of Damascus’ – Manuel Ruiz López and seven companions of the order of Friars Minor; and Francis, Mooti, and Raphael Massabki, lay Maronites; Marie-Léonie Paradis, founder of the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family; Elena Guerra, founder of the Oblates of the Holy Spirit, called “Sisters of Santa Zita”; and Joseph Allamano, founder of the Institutes of the Missionaries and the Missionary Sisters of the Consolata and Past Pupil of the school and of the Oratory of Don Bosco.
Joseph Allamano was born on 21 January 1851 in Castelnuovo d’Asti, now Castelnuovo Don Bosco (Italy), a fertile land of holiness, which gave birth to Saint Joseph Cafasso, Saint John Bosco, Saint Dominic Savio, from the hamlet of Morialdo, and Saint Joseph Allamano, grandnephew of Saint Cafasso. After completing primary school in his town, he entered the Salesian Oratory of Valdocco (Turin) to complete his secondary school studies which he completed in four years. He had St. John Bosco as his spiritual director for the whole time.
“The undersigned then considers himself fortunate to have lived for four years with the Servant of God in the Salesian Oratory, during which time he could admire his singular virtues, and could enjoy the spiritual direction of Don Bosco in the Holy Tribunal of Penance”. This is what Allamano said of him when he testified at the diocesan canonical process for the canonization of the Saint of Youth.
He also told of some ‘scoldings’ he received from Don Bosco, among which the most affectionate is that of having left Valdocco on 19 August 1866, without saying goodbye to him, “You committed a big one… You left without saying goodbye!” (Source: giuseppeallamano.consolata.org)
The Celebration, emotional and dense with prayer, began with the brief presentation of biographical profiles by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, which was followed by the Petitio, the request to the Holy Father to enroll the Blesseds in the Book of Saints and that “as Saints they are invoked by all Christians”. The rite was completed with the request of intercession to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints, through the Litanies, and with the proclamation of the formula of canonization by the Pope. On the Parvis, at the feet of Mary, there were the relics of the new Saints, venerated with incense. The square then exploded in thunderous applause.
In his homily Pope Francis, commenting on the Word of God of Sunday and speaking about service as a Christian lifestyle, opposed to power, he described the newly Canonized:
“In this light, we can remember the disciples of the Gospel, who today are canonized. Throughout the tormented history of humanity, they have been faithful servants, men and women who served in martyrdom and joy, as Brother Manuel Ruiz Lopez and his companions. They are fervent priests and consecrated women, fervent with missionary passion, as Fr. Giuseppe Allamano, Sister Paradis Marie Leonie, and Sister Elena Guerra.
These new saints lived the style of Jesus: service. The faith and the apostolate they carried out did not nourish in them worldly desires and cravings for power but, on the contrary, they became servants of their brothers and sisters, creative in doing good, steadfast in difficulties, generous to the end.”
It is extraordinary to see how attention of the Saints to the little ones, to the “least”, leads them to contemplate among themselves the ‘wonders’ wrought by God, and how they still today highlight the importance of continuing to spend time in order to protect their rights and dignity, as it emerged from the words of the Pope at the Angelus, at the end of the Celebration, “The witness of Saint Joseph Allamano reminds us of the necessary attention to the most fragile and vulnerable populations. I am thinking in particular of the Yanomami people in the Brazilian Amazon forest, among whose members the miracle linked to today’s canonization took place. I appeal to the political and civil authorities to ensure the protection of these peoples and their fundamental rights, and against any form of exploitation of their dignity and their territories.”
The joy for the strong event of grace and of lived Church, was finally made palpable in the faithful, who greeted Pope Francis waving banners and scarves of all colors and affiliations, to then go to celebrate their own Saints, sharing a unique moment of family in fraternity.
The following day, some churches in the city of Rome hosted the various groups of pilgrims for their respective celebrations of thanksgiving for the Canonizations.
“Today we are here at the tomb of the Apostle of the Gentiles to thank all together for the immense gift of holiness of Joseph Allamano, our Founder. It is the today of contemporaneity that animates the Church.”
At the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, the homily began with these words of Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia and Missionary of the Consolata. He continued by saying, “God calls me today, I do not know if he will call me tomorrow” – recalling the Founder in discernment of his vocation. “This constant search for the will of God and this attention to its fulfillment today has been a constant sign in his life and he invites us to do the same.”
