Tommaso Reggio

Last updated

Tommaso Reggio
Archbishop of Genoa
Beato Tomas Reggio.jpg
Photograph taken between 1887 and 1901.
Church Roman Catholic Church
Archdiocese Genoa
Metropolis Genoa
See Genoa
Appointed11 July 1892
Installed10 August 1892
Term ended22 November 1901
PredecessorSalvatore Magnasco
SuccessorEduardo Pulciano
Orders
Ordination18 September 1841
by Placido Maria Tadini
Consecration6 May 1877
by Salvatore Magnasco
RankArchbishop
Personal details
Born
Tommaso Reggio

(1818-01-09)9 January 1818
Died22 November 1901(1901-11-22) (aged 83)
Triora, Imperia, Kingdom of Italy
Previous post(s)
Sainthood
Feast day 9 January
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Beatified3 September 2000
Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City
by  Pope John Paul II
Attributes
  • Episcopal attire
Ordination history of
Tommaso Reggio
History
Priestly ordination
Ordained byPlacido Maria Tadini
Date18 September 1841
Episcopal consecration
Principal consecratorSalvatore Magnasco
Co-consecratorsGiovanni Battista Cerruti & Giuseppe Maria Sciandra
Date6 May 1877
Place Cattedrale di San Lorenzo, Genoa, Kingdom of Italy
Episcopal succession
Bishops consecrated by Tommaso Reggio as principal consecrator
Fortunato Vinelli12 March 1893
Giovanni Carli21 May 1898
Disma Marchese23 June 1901

Tommaso Reggio (9 January 1818 - 22 November 1901) was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate who served as the Archbishop of Genoa from 1892 until his death. He was also the founder of the Sisters of Saint Martha. [1] Reggio distinguished himself during an earthquake that struck his diocese in 1887. He tended to the injured in the rubble and led initiatives to direct diocesan resources towards the displaced and the injured; while in Genoa he collaborated with Bishop Giovanni Battista Scalabrini in tending to immigrants through a range of different pastoral initiatives. [2] [3]

Contents

Reggio's cause for sainthood opened in 1983 though initiatives had been made prior to this to collect documents in relation to his life and episcopal tenure; he was named as Venerable in 1997 and the miraculous cure of a Chilean girl led to his beatification in Saint Peter's Square on 3 September 2000. [1]

Life

Education and priesthood

Tommaso Reggio was born in Genoa on 9 January 1818 to Marquis Giovanni Giacomo Reggio and Angela Maria Pareto; he was baptized on 10 January in the archdiocesan cathedral of San Lorenzo. [2] He made his First Communion and received his Confirmation on 10 April 1828 from the Bishop of Saluzzo Antonio Podestà.

Reggio received his initial education at home from a private teacher and then his high school education in Genoa from the Somaschi Fathers and on 1 August 1838 received his Bachelor of Law from the Genoa college. [1] [3] On 24 March 1839 he decided to become a priest and underwent his philosophical and theological education in preparation for the priesthood. He received his ordination to the priesthood on 18 September 1841 after the conclusion of his ecclesial studies from Cardinal Placido Maria Tadini; he celebrated his first Mass in Gavi in Alessandria in the church of San Maurizio. On 15 July 1842, he graduated from Genoa College in theological studies and received his doctorate in those studies in 1843. Reggio was appointed in 1843 as the vice-rector of seminarians in Genoa while later serving as the rector of seminarians in Chiavari from 1845 until 1851. [2] [3] In 1851 he returned to Genoa where he served as the abbot of Santa Maria Assunta in Carignano since his appointment as such on 26 May. He helped found The Catholic Standard on 26 July 1849 which was a newspaper but was to later close the paper on 14 March 1874 (with its final issue) after the papal declaration that the faithful could not vote in elections. It also put to rest his hopes - and that of others - for establishing a political organization based on the teachings of the faith. [1]

Episcopate

He was named as the Bishop of Ventimiglia and as the titular Bishop of Tanis; he received his episcopal consecration in mid-1877. The diocese was so poor to the point that he had to travel on a mule to visit his parishes while making three pastoral visitations to the parishes in 1877, 1882 and 1889 while celebrating the first diocesan synod on 8 March 1880. [2] He founded the Sisters of Saint Martha on 15 October 1878 which he determined was to be a congregation devoted to caring for the poor. He opened new parishes and also organized three diocesan gatherings of bishops and priests and focused on liturgical revival. In addition to this he set up teaching programs across the diocese and began the restorative work of the Genoa Cathedral. [3]

Following an earthquake in 1887 in his diocese he worked with the victims in the rubble and he ordered his priests to use all of their resources to help the displaced peoples. [1] He founded orphanages at Ventimiglia and Sanremo for those children who had lost their families in the quake. This great aid he rendered saw the Italian government award him as a Knight of the Cross of Ss. Maurizio e Lazzaro in 1887. In 1892 he asked Pope Leo XIII to relieve him of his duties but the pope appointed him instead as the Archbishop of Genoa where he was enthroned on 10 August in a grand celebration. He set up a network for immigrants and worked alongside Bishop Giovanni Battista Scalabrini to that end. On 2 April 1892, he ordained August Czartoryski as a priest. [3] [2] He celebrated an archdiocesan synod in 1893. Reggio also presided over the funeral of Umberto I on 8 August 1900 with papal permission to do so. [1]

Death

Reggio made a pilgrimage on 13 September 1901 to Triora due to the unveiling of a new statue of Jesus Christ on Mount Saccarello with diocesan priests; he could not ascend the mountain due to being struck with a sudden and violent knee pain forcing him to remain in bed. Infection soon settled in and worsened despite dressings and kneepads that failed to help heal him. [1] He died in the afternoon on 22 November 1901 at 2:20pm with his last words being: "God, God, God alone is enough for me". Ambrogio Daffra - his successor in Ventimiglia - said not long after his death: "I have witnessed the death of a saint". His remains were interred in Genoa after the funeral at the cathedral but later relocated in 1951. His order received the papal decree of praise from Pope Pius XI on 13 May 1928 who also granted pontifical approval later on 21 May 1935; in 2008 his order had 527 religious in 63 houses in countries such as Argentina and Lebanon. The first biographical account of his life was published in 1926. [3]

Beatification

The beatification cause opened on 26 May 1983 after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued the official "nihil obstat" to the cause and titled Reggio as a Servant of God; Cardinal Giuseppe Siri oversaw the diocesan process of investigation from 1983 until 1984 when all documents were sealed and boxes and sent to the C.C.S. in Rome who validated the process on 23 November 1992. The cause's officials compiled the Positio dossier though submitted it to the C.C.S. in two parts in 1991 and later in 1994 for investigation. Six historians approved the cause on 24 November 1992 as did the nine theologians later on 23 September 1997 in a unanimous decision. Cardinal Giovanni Canestri convened a meeting of the C.C.S. on 2 December 1997 which approved the cause as well. Reggio was named as Venerable on 18 December 1997 after Pope John Paul II confirmed his life of heroic virtue.

Reggio's beatification depended on the approval of a miraculous healing that neither medicine nor science could explain. One such case was investigated in Valparaíso in Chile in 1995 (Jorge Medina oversaw the diocesan process) before all the evidence was sent to the C.C.S. who validated the diocesan investigation on 18 October 1996. The medical panel of experts approved this case on 29 January 1998 as did the theologians on 5 May 1998 and the C.C.S. on 6 October 1998. John Paul II approved this miracle on 21 December 1998 and beatified Reggio on 3 September 2000 in Saint Peter's Square before a crowd of 80,000 people.

Miracle

The miracle that led to Reggio's beatification in 2000 was the miraculous healing of the girl Pabla Valdenegro Romero (b. 1979) who suffered from Guillain-Barré Syndrome - or polyradiculoneuritis - along with albumin-cytological dissociation ascending paralysis with cranial nerve involvement and quadriplegia as well as prolonged lung failure and two cardiac arrests as well as subcutaneous emphysema and other complications. This instantaneous healing came on 10 November 1985.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">August Czartoryski</span> Polish Roman Catholic priest

August Franciszek Maria Anna Józef Kajetan Czartoryski was a Polish Roman Catholic professed member of the Salesians of Don Bosco and a noble prince. He was born in Paris during his house's exile and came from a notable house; his constant frail health saw much of his childhood being shuttled to various health spas. Raphael Kalinowski tutored him; the prince turned to the priesthood instead of pursuing the aristocratic life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giovanni Antonio Farina</span> Italian Roman Catholic saint

Giovanni Antonio Farina was an Italian Catholic bishop known for his compassionate treatment of the poor and for his enlightened views of education; he was sometimes dubbed as the "Bishop of the Poor". He served as the Bishop of Vicenza and later as the Bishop of Treviso; he is also known for ordaining the future Pope Pius X to the priesthood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaetano Catanoso</span> Italian Catholic priest (1879–1963)

Gaetano Catanoso was an Italian Catholic priest and the founder of the Suore Veroniche del Santo Volto (1934). Catanoso served as a parish priest in two different parishes for his entire ecclesial life and was an ardent devotee of the Face of Jesus which he promoted to the faithful. He also founded the Poor Clerics to encourage vocations to the priesthood while forming the Confraternita del Santo Volto (1920) to spread devotion to the Face of Jesus. He dedicated his pastoral career to bringing the Gospel message to all people and hiked or rode on a mule to reach distant and surrounding mountain villages in order to evangelize to people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Marello</span> Italian Roman Catholic bishop

Giuseppe Marello was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate who served as the Bishop of Acqui from 1889 until his death and was also the founder of the Oblates of Saint Joseph. Marello served as an aide to the Bishop of Asti prior to his episcopal appointment after Pope Leo XIII named him to head the Acqui diocese; the pope had known Marello while a cardinal when the pair participated in the First Vatican Council more than a decade before. He became a proponent for the poor and destitute and never stopped rendering his assistance to those who needed it the most; this was something he undertook even in his childhood. Bishop Marello issued several pastoral letters that dealt with a range of issues such as catechism and organized one big pastoral visitation to visit all parishes in his diocese.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis-Zéphirin Moreau</span> Canadian Roman Catholic prelate

Louis-Zéphirin Moreau was a Canadian Roman Catholic prelate who served as the fourth Bishop of Saint-Hyacinthe from 1875 until his death in 1901. He was also the cofounder of the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Hyacinthe, an congregation he founded with Élisabeth Bergeron, and the founder of the Sisters of Sainte Martha. Moreau was a frail child due to being born premature and so could not help his farmer parents work on their land. He dedicated himself to his studies and later his ecclesial studies despite the fact that illness forced him to slow down his studies which impeded on his progress to ordination. But a benefactor, Jean-Charles Prince, Coadjutor Bishop of Montreal, saw him advance towards his ordination and he served as an aide to several bishops in the diocesan secretariat and later as a diocesan vicar general.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Ventimiglia-Sanremo</span> Roman Catholic diocese in Liguria, Italy

The Diocese of Ventimiglia-Sanremo is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in Liguria, northern Italy. The name of the historic Diocese of Ventimiglia was changed in 1975. It was originally a suffragan diocese of the Metropolitanate of Milan up to 1806, when it was transferred to the Metropolitanate of Aix; but it has been a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Genoa since 1818.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello</span> Italian saint, nun and foundress

Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Benedictine Sisters of Providence. Frassinello married to appease her parents in 1816 but the couple decided to lead a chaste life and both pursued a call to the religious life with Frassinello joining the Ursulines in Capriolo at Brescia. But husband and wife later reunited after setting out to establish schools for the education of girls and the pair moved back to Genoa where she founded her order in 1838 based on the Benedictine charism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giovanni Battista Scalabrini</span> Italian Catholic Bishop (1839–1905)

Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, CS was an Italian Catholic missionary who served as Bishop of Piacenza from 1876 until his death. He was the founder of both the Missionaries of Saint Charles and the Mission Sisters of Saint Charles.

Adílio Daronch was a Brazilian Roman Catholic adolescent. Daronch was born to immigrants and lived his entire life in Brazil where he was known to have had a love for football and riding. He became a dedicated altar server following the reception of his First Communion and often accompanied the priest Manuel Gómez González on his long missions of evangelization. The pair were murdered in 1924 on one such mission after revolutionaries became outraged with Manuel's active apostolate in their area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacinto Vera</span> Uruguayan Catholic bishop (1813–1881)

Blessed Jacinto Vera Durán was a Uruguayan Roman Catholic prelate who served as the first bishop of Montevideo. He was an active minister in Uruguay, although his efforts to renew the priesthood and other ecclesial initiatives brought him into conflict with the Uruguayan government; this was the cause of his exile from the country, establishing himself in Buenos Aires between October 1862 and August 1863, at which point a political change in Uruguay made his return possible. The popularity showcased by his reception continued throughout the rest of his life due to his intense and prolonged missionary work all over the diocese of Montevideo, of which he was made bishop upon its creation in 1878. A neighborhood of Montevideo was named after him in 1895.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assunta Marchetti</span>

Assunta Marchetti was an Italian Roman Catholic religious sister and the co-founder of the Missionary Sisters of Saint Charles Borromeo Scalabrinians; she worked in Brazil from 1895 until her death. She has been beatified as a Blessed Mother. Her priest brother Giuseppe is titled as Venerable on the path to sainthood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giuseppe Benedetto Dusmet</span> Italian Roman Catholic cardinal (181–1894)

Giuseppe Benedetto Dusmet – born Giuseppe Dusmet – was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal who served as the Archbishop of Catania from 1867 until his death. He became professed into the Order of Saint Benedict where he took "Benedetto" as his religious name. He studied under the Benedictines prior to joining them before serving as a professor in addition to prior and abbot. His elevation to the episcopate saw him distinguish himself in cholera epidemics when he tended to the ill while also remaining a strong advocate for the poor of his archdiocese. He remained a Benedictine and was known to continue to don the Benedictine habit instead of the red cardinal's regalia.

Maximiano Valdés Subercaseaux - in religious Francisco - was a Chilean Roman Catholic prelate who was a professed member from the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin and served as the first Bishop of Osorno from 1956 until his death. Valdés discerned his call to the priesthood while with his parents in Europe and was ordained as a priest in Venice after completing his studies in Rome but continued further formation amongst the Franciscans in Europe before making his return to Chile. He was the first Chilean to have become a Capuchin friar. Valdés dedicated his episcopal career to the poor and he often visited the poor regions around his diocese while remaining a staunch advocate for a peaceful resolution to the Chile-Argentina border disputes; his last words also contained a desire for there to be peace between the two feuding nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lodovico Pavoni</span> Italian Roman Catholic saint

Lodovico Pavoni was an Italian Roman Catholic priest who administered in Brescia where he lived. He paid close attention to the needs of males and was concerned with their education. He was to establish – in 1825 – his own religious congregation to assist in his mission: the Sons of Mary Immaculate which came to be known also as the "Pavoniani".

Francesco Spinelli was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Sisters Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament. Spinelli became close contemporaries of Geltrude Comensoli and Luigi Maria Palazzolo and had a previous collaboration with Comensoli in which the two established a religious institute in Bergamo before a rift between members caused Spinelli to distance himself from its work and leave.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clelia Merloni</span> Italian nun

Clelia Merloni was an Italian Roman Catholic nun and the founder of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Merloni was destined to follow her father into the business world but renounced his anti-religious sentiment and instead went down the religious path. Internal complications led to Merloni's fall from grace and she went into self-imposed exile where she received a dispensation to break from her religious vows. She later rejoined the congregation as a nun not long before her death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arsenio da Trigolo</span> Roman Catholic priest (1849–1909)

Arsenio da Trigolo, OFM Cap., was an Italian Catholic priest and a professed member from the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Baptiste Fouque</span> French Catholic priest (1851–1926)

Jean-Baptiste Fouque was a French Roman Catholic priest. He tended to the poor during his time as a parish priest in Marseilles and was noted for his desire to create a large and free hospital for them. He achieved this in 1921 and tended to the old and infirm in the hospital. Fouque also was known for his ministering to displaced peoples during World War I and for his commitment to evangelization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giovanni Ferro</span> Italian Catholic prelate and archbishop

Giovanni Ferro was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate and professed member from the Somascans, who served as the Archbishop of Reggio Calabria from 1950 until his resignation in 1977. Ferro had served twice as the Bishop of Bova while managing his archdiocese, first from 1950 to 1960 and again from 1973 until 1977. Ferro commenced his ecclesial studies in his late childhood and studied in Milan and Turin before completing his education in Rome. He began teaching and serving as a pastor before ascending to some leadership positions within the Somascans. This continued until he was appointed as an archbishop where he became renowned for his charitable outreach to the poor and downtrodden and for his consistent efforts in evangelization; these efforts increased following the Second Vatican Council when he sought to introduce renewal into his episcopal see.

Ángel Riesco Carbajo was a Spanish Roman Catholic prelate who served as a bishop in the Pamplona archdiocese and was the founder of the Misioneras Apostólicas de la Caridad. Riesco spent some time in Argentina as an emigrant before he returned to his homeland for a scholarship that saw his ecclesial studies spent in Madrid and Santander. He served as a parish priest following his ordination and in 1957 in Astorga founded a religious congregation dedicated to women. Months later he became a bishop but retired a decade later due to poor health that he later died from not long after.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Blessed Tommaso Reggio". Saints SQPN. 30 June 2016. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Blessed Tommaso Reggio". Santi e Beati. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Bl. Tommaso Reggio". Holy See. Retrieved 20 April 2017.