CHARISM:
A GIFT TO MAKE IT BLOSSOM
LOUIS PALAZZOLO
SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE
1827, December 10th:Louis Palazzolo was born from Octavius and Theresa Antoine, in Bergamo, Prato street, now September XXth street.
He is baptized the following day.
1837,August:His father dies, his mother entrusts the direction of his son to Father Peter Sironi.
1844,November:Louis enters the Seminary for his theological studies.
1850,June 23rd:He is ordained priest by Mgr Gritti Morlacchi, his former Parish Priest. Then he joins the Foppa oratory, opened by Father Donati and soon becomes its Director.
1859,September:The rent of the Oratory expires and Father Louis is obliged to dismiss his youth.
1861:Mgr Speranza launches an appeal for the female youth: Father Louis and Theresa Gabrieli grant it.
1862,September:Father Louis’s mother dies.
1864,January 6th:He opens the Pious Work of St Dorothy in the house of the Oratory.
1869,May 22nd:He founds the Congregation of Poverelle Sisters; Theresa Gabrieli is the first Sister.
1869,June 25th:Mgr Alexander Valsecchi, his spiritual Director, is elected Bishop.
1869, June 27th:Father Louis begins the Spiritual Exercises at St Eusebius in Rome, at the house of Jesuit Fathers, and is seized by NAKED JESUS on the CROSS.
1870, October 4th:Baptist Leidi accepts to be at the head of the Family of orphans: the Brothers of the Holy Family are formed.
1873 - 1885: Years of work blessed by the Lord!
1879, May 5th:Mgr Alexander Valsecchi dies.
1879, June 9th:Bishop Mgr Speranza dies.
1880, November 29th:Baptist Leidi, first brother of the Holy Family, dies.
1886, April 16th:Father Louis is ill, and celebrates Mass for the last time.
1886, May 12th:Seriously ill, he has the visit of Bishop Mgr Guindani, who brings him the APPROVAL OF THE CONSTITUTIONS.
1886, June 15th, 1 hour 20’ a.m.:Palazzolo dies.
1886, June 17th:Solemn funeral of Father Louis Palazzolo.
1963, March 19th:Pope John XXIII proclaims him Blessed Soul!
SISTER THERESA GABRIELI
SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE
1837, September 13th:Theresa Gabrieli was born from Joseph and from Morelli Lucia, in the Parish of St Alexander (Bergamo), St Lucy quarter.
The following day she is baptized.
1852:Theresa’s father dies, her mother obeys a wish of her dying husband and makes Theresa study at the school of Canossian sisters.
1854:She becomes a qualified schoolteacher.
1861, April 4th:Appeal of Bishop Mgr Speranza to “save the female youth”; Theresa answers opening a small school at 24, Osio Street.
1863, July 17th:Theresa Gabrieli’s mother dies.
1864, January 6th: Father Louis Palazzolo opens, in the Parish of St Alexander, the Pious Work of St Dorothy. Theresa Gabrieli will join it from 1867.
1868,November:Palazzolo offers Gabrieli the first cripple orphan girl covered in sores…
1869, May 22nd:In Foppa Street, after a night of prayer, Theresa Gabrieli devotes herself to the Lord. She is the first one of Poverelle Sisters.
1869, November 20th:Judith Broletti joins Gabrieli; the first community of Poverelle Sisters was born.
1870, October 7th:The small group has a name: POVERELLE SISTERS, and a clear programme, the one Palazzolo dreamt of: “To serve the poorest, in humility, in simplicity, in joy”.
1886, May 12th:The Bishop of Bergamo, Mgr Camillo Guindani, approves the Constitutions of Poverelle Sisters.
1886, June 15th:Palazzolo dies; sr Theresa Gabrieli remains alone in guiding the young Institute.
1886, July 14th:Mgr William Valsecchi is the new Superior.
1904, February 2nd:Transfer of Palazzolo’s mortal remains from the cemetery to the chapel of Mother House.
1906,January 18th:Pastoral Visit of Mgr Radini Tedeschi to Mother House; Father Angel Roncalli, his young secretary, is with him!
1907, November 3rd:St Philip Neri Oratory, founded by Palazzolo, is moved to its new seat. At Mother House there is room for a lot of orphan girls.
1908, February 6th:Mother Theresa Gabrieli dies!
1934, March 15th:Mother Theresa Gabrieli’s mortal remains are transferred into Mother House, in a purpose-made grave.
1
Palazzolo’s Charism
A gift from the Spirit, the charism is ‘provoked’ by a precise historical moment and reveals itself in a ‘mission’, comprehensive of a spirituality, of a particular style of life and service.
•In reference to the charism of foundation it must be underlined that it is a free gift,
•a gift that is linked to the ability to understand and realize it,
•a gift that must be accepted and made bear fruit,
•a gift that, being for the edification of the Church, must be recognized, approved, guaranteed by herself,
•a gift that is not only a good for the others, but enriches the person herself who accepts and puts it into effect.
Since a charism is given for common good, it follows that it:
•must be communicated to others, for it to survive in time,
•must be structured, take concrete shape in choices of life and service,
•exacts responsibility and fidelity in those who accept it and take possession of it,
•implies a dynamic development in time, to be able to express itself coherently in the historical situation that have changed,
•needs a careful inculturation in the lives of people and in the different places where it is sown.
Then, Palazzolian charism is the gift the Holy Spirit has given the Church and the poor of XIXth century, by Palazzolo and Mother Gabrieli and that now keeps on giving by those who, by choice of life, are following their experience of gift and service.
In short, it can be explained like this:
LIKE HIM, Jesus Crucified, naked on the cross, FOR THEM and WITH THEM, the poor, the last, the unachieved, in a style of SIMPLICITY, JOY and FAMILIARITY.
For Palazzolo and for Mother Theresa, the charism so carries the “why” of their living and of their serving, the source and the aim of their loving, the strength and the joy of their placing their trust in the Lord of life and history.
Way of life of the Founders
Since he was a child, actually, the signs of a particular divine calling show themselves in Palazzolo:
- charity towards the poor:
“When he went to school he used to give out to his poorest school friends what his mother had given him for the school meal and what he himself had stolen from the table of home… once he gave a boy numb with cold his waistcoat” (Trials, Sr Estella Guerini).
“In him it was almost innate the pity for the poor” (Castelletti, page 14).
- simplicity and joy:
“Then, during all his life, he had the characteristic of a singular innocence and of an almost childhood simplicity because of which nobody seemed to be afraid of him and a lot of people, even in the last days of his life, commonly used to call him still ‘Palazzolino’… His nature was extremely merry and sweet, his heart was sensitive and affectionate” (Castelletti, page 12).
A sweetness and a cheerfulness that resulted from his concrete love for the others.
“He was very charitable with the poor, and, what he received as gifts from his mother or from relatives, all he used to give to the poor” (Trials, Father Bernardino Gavazzeni).
“Palazzolo’s mother often said to my mum: ‘My son is fool… just think he has given his overcoat to a poor man who had not it, some time ago… his shirt, another time his shoes’…” (Trials, Mrs Ida Caffi).
Palazzolo from rich becomes poor, as “Christ who from rich became poor, to enrich us with His Poverty”.
“If his family was not very rich, however it was well-to-do and well-off…: a rich and well-furnished flat in town, a beautiful holiday house in the country; always elegant and silk clothes; a sumptuously laid table with silver services, crystals and very delicate potteries… And there, in that house itself, among those comforts, Palazzolo began to live like a poor man”(Castelletti, pages 170-171).
“At the Seminary he stood out for his piety, for the integrity of his behaviour, for frankness and merriment of character and for an indefinable something of sweetness and gentleness he had in his behaviour, so that everybody loved and esteemed him” (Castelletti, page 19).
“The years of his life as a seminarist and many of those of his priesthood, we can say that Palazzolo entirely devoted them to the Oratory; where he used to spend the hours of the afternoon during the weekdays and almost the whole holiday, then loosing sleep for a great part of the night, to devote it to study…” (Castelletti, page. 28).
As a Priest he devotes himself to the most abandoned youth
His qualities made him choose, always in the poor environment, the youth as the field of his activity.
“As a Priest, he devoted himself entirely to the Foppa oratory, placed in St Bernardino quarter, whose inhabitants were, almost all, very poor… And this, also for that particular and superior instinct, which always made him prefer the poor” (Castelletti, page 27).
He could be felt very near, “friendly”:
“No speeches ‘this way and that’…, but clear, that everybody can understand, even the ignorant persons and that only aim at doing a little good”(Castelletti, page 36).
The death of his mother (1862) marked a stage of real self-deprivation of his wealth, that made him share in practical terms his life with the poor youth.
“Left his house and built at the Oratory he founded a small residence, he decided to devote his life and his substance entirely to the good of youth… His life was like his house. His faithful maid inherited from her mother, his Baptist more brother or son than servant…”(Castelletti, pages 171-172).
Two lives meet and…
He devotes himself to the good even of female youth.
“A day, talking with Mgr Valsecchi (his spiritual director) about his aversion in listening to the confessions and in taking up the spiritual direction of women, aversion caused in him by his almost scrupulous love for chastity, he told, almost reproaching him: «What? Are they not souls of the Lord, them too? And why won’t we and, being able, shan’t we do even their good?» These words were impressive on his soul, because he used to take a word of his directors like a voice and an inspiration of God and, reflecting on it, overcome every aversion and guided by obedience, he began to devote himself also to the welfare of female sex, listening to their confessions in St Bernardino Church and in his” (Castelletti, page 62).
He opens the oratory for the female youth of that very poor and crowded quarter, and soon founds there the Pious Work of St Dorothy (1864) (cf. Castelletti, pages 62-67).
Palazzolo feels that he cannot succeed all alone and, following the impulse of the Spirit, calls male and female collaborators.
“That small house intended for the female Oratory used to remain idle and empty for the whole week. Would it not have been a suitable thing that one or two of the female teachers of the Pious Work, of those free from family commitments, would fix her residence there, in order that the house could always remain open and could serve as a place of meeting for the others, who could go there either for council or for another spiritual need, either of them or of the girls entrusted to them?… ‘Who knows then that from these female teachers the Lord doesn’t want something more than the Pious Work?. Even this time Palazzolo began to mull over these mysterious and almost prophetical words (of his Bishop), and started to pray more passionately and to do greater and harsher penances, to know what was God’s will about it”(Castelletti, page 68).
In an interesting letter, written at the desire of Theresa Gabrieli, Father Louis tries to make the others know something of the plan God was gradually enlightening to him, to mother a new “institution”, for the total good of the poor youth:
“The idea is that to found an institution… The life should be active, and all spent for the youth. The house of the Institute should hold out its hand, so to speak, even to the Pious Work of St Dorothy, helping it by opening a sure shelter for the girls during the holidays…, offering them, in its enclosures, recreation and culture, according to what the alternation of times will require… Then I think that that Priest (Palazzolo) who is working to this end, enjoys very much doing good among the poor, and is repeating that our Lord Jesus Christ used to say, as a proof of his mission, that he was sent to evangelize the poor, and exhorts us to take care and to do good to the poor women” (L.P., 12-5-1868, n° 713).
…the experience of Poverelle Sisters begins
“For his purpose, for his spirit, he wanted affable people, who would not keep at any distance from the condition of those girls, whom he wanted to provide for, differing from them very much in life, but a little in habit, a little in manners; finally some people that, in reality and in appearance, would live poorly among the poor” (Castelletti, pages 70-71).
To start the new “work” off, the Providence leads him to discover the suitable person in the young female teacher and supervisor of the Pious Work, Theresa Gabrieli.
She was really the “sensible and pious woman, and also firm and prudent, of great virtue, of great zeal and abnegation, loving poverty and the poor, loving the youth and able to educate it, who was joining, to the due discretion and firmness of irreproachable morality, also that moderate liberality, that gives confidence”(Castelletti, page 71).
In fact she proved to be a woman of great faith, able to seize and share the charism that spurred Palazzolo to ‘reach’ the poorest and to devote to them with all his strength and with a real Charity.
“I remember that one night he called Mrs Gabrieli Theresa and myself Catherine Broletti, and took us to the house in Foppa Street and made us a speech about poverty, humility and obedience, made us kneel in front of an image of the Virgin, called Mater Amabilis. He celebrated the Holy Mass and gave us the Holy Communion saying lastly: «Providence will provide», and gave us the keys of the house” (Trials, Sr Catherine Broletti).
This is how Father Louis himself describes, in a note of his “Diaries”, that unforgettable night:
“On the day May 22nd, 1869, the Holy Mass celebrated very early, in the small Church of St Philip Neri Oratory, the Priest Louis Palazzolo, with Theresa Gabrieli, Catherine Broletti and Mary Serafini, withdrew into the room for the particular small Church of the house of Poverelle Sisters of St Dorothy they wanted to found, and, kneeling before the images of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, they made their offers and promises. This was the beginning of the House of Poverelle Sisters of St Dorothy” (Diaries Founder).
As soon as he began the new religious Family, composed for some months only by Theresa Gabrieli, he writes on a small exercise book a draft of Rule of Life for Poverelle Sisters. A simple and essential, clear and demanding text.
The aim is:
“… to do one’s best… for the good of female youth, above all of the poor abandoned orphan girls. This… matters that Poverelle Sisters always aim and mean, as the main purpose of the Institute, to be good for… the poor girls and young women and above all… abandoned. Be careful not to stray from this aim, under any specious reason of more florid and more sublime charity. The charity of Poverelle Sisters is first of all for the poor female children, girls or young women… who cannot find any admission into any other institution”(I Constitutions, written in 1869 and approved in 1886, chapter IX).
Who has lived next to Palazzolo and has taken his style of life and of service to the poor, so testifies:
“I know the Institute of Poverelle Sisters because I saw it spring up. Its spirit is of great poverty and obedience: its aim, to take in abandoned orphan girls and to give assistance at home to the poor sick. Palazzolo has given his Institution some very simple rules” (Trials, Father Bernardino Gavazzeni).
“… offering oneself to the good of youth, above all of the female one, to assist the sick women in their houses and, exceptionally, even the sick men and even to educate the poor girls by Sunday schools” (Trials, Sr Catherine Broletti).
In a document, where the charism of foundation received from the Spirit is expressed clearly, we can read:
“In our house all the unhappy people find shelter and comfort, it is the house of Mercy. No idle words, fond expressions, superfluous kindnesses, but bread, wine, fire, shelter, right advice, timely helps”(L.P., Ep., page 1.173).
And again in a letter he repeats with an amazing determination:
“Firm like rocks about our programme. Low things and gleaning what harvesters leave behind”
(L.P., 7-16-1885, n° 166).
Always open to new horizons, to the needs of the poorest: