Blessed Giuseppe Nascimbeni, January 22

Blessed Giuseppe Nascimbeni

Torri del Benaco, Verona, March 22, 1851 – Castelletto di Brenzone, Verona, January 21, 1922

Roman Martyrology: In Castelletto del Garda in Veneto, Blessed Joseph Nascimbeni, priest, founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family.

A pearl of a priest and a pastor treasure: this is in a nutshell the activities and mission of Don Giuseppe Nascimbeni proclaimed blessed by Pope John Paul II in 1988. Born in 1851 in the province of Verona: his mother provided, along with the milk, a sense of order and precision, from Dad he learned the love of work and the liveliness of character, he inherited from both a religious sensibility. His vocation is born slowly and not without internal conflict, however, at 23 years and was ordained a priest he graduated master. Three years after sending in Castelletto di Brenzone thousand souls on Lake Garda in a country that seemed forgotten by God and men, he did not know that he would stop for 45 years until his death. For some years he collaborated with the senior pastor and his death happens, because the heads of the country do not want to go on. He dived into a pastoral swirling, using all his talents, with a real explosion of initiatives, but the country is in a disastrous situation: neglected children, young people without education and religious people living alone without care, families disrupted by a large-scale emigration to find a job that the country can not offer.

To complete the picture, here are other deficiencies: the country was connected to the rest of the world only by ferry, was free of roads, electricity and potable water. A poor priest could only load so many problems and even don Giuseppe after seven years threw in the towel. ” He appeared in the bishopric with a letter of resignation in his pocket, let off steam beacuse his bishop was unable to find even two sisters who were willing to support his pastoral activities and to cooperate in the parish. He was told “If you nissuni gives (the sisters) fevele vu as flights.” Don Joseph was struck by this proposal: straccia to the letter of resignation, he returned to parish, gathered the first four girls willing to embrace the religious life, to send to the novitiate in Verona and prepared for a Convent in their country.

Hence the “Little Sisters of the Sacred Family”, why Don Joseph wants “a family” for the family; he was convinced that the reorganization of the company passes only through a strong family, that can discover the real values. The new foundation put the wings to his imagination and his creativity; he buildt a road, lead the country in light of acetylene and drinking water; founded a Cassa Rurale to stamp wear, opened shelters for children who all’alpeggio are organizing home-based care of people living alone, opened a kindergarten, a school for orphaned and a hospice would be “invented” a knitwear and a tiografia .. Condendo everything by prayer, seeking and encouraging the cooperation of the laity. Paralysis stopped him on December 31, 1916 and the blocks for the next five years in a prayer. He died January 21, 1922, while his sisters spread around the world, from Albania to Angola, from Paraguay to Brazil, always at the service of the family, always close to the poor poorer. As he wanted.

He  was Beatified by Pope John Paul, II on April 17, 1988

Source: Santi e Beati, The Holy See