Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the death of Saint John Leonardi, founder of the religious order of Clerks Regular of the Mother of God, the Holy Father Benedict XVI dedicated his catechesis during the General Audience on October 7 to this “luminous priestly figure,” whose missionary dimension he highlighted. The Pope said: “He is also remembered for his great missionary zeal. Together with Monsignor Juan Bautista Vives and Jesuit Martin de Funes, he planned and contributed to the establishment of a specific Congregation of the Holy See for the missions, that of Propoganda Fide, and to the future birth of the Pontifical Urbanian Athenaeum 'De Propoganda Fide,' which in the course of centuries has forged thousands of priests, many of them martyrs, to evangelize peoples.”
Recalling the main stages of his life, the Holy Father recalled that John Leonardi was born in 1541 in the Province of Lucca. After studying pharmacy, he decided to embark on the path towards the priesthood and was ordained on the feast of Epiphany 1572. However, he did not abandon his passion for pharmaceutics, as he felt the vocation to reach out to offer all men, through a holy life, “the medicine of God,” who is Jesus Christ crucified and risen, “the measure of all things.” Saint John Leonardi “tried to make the personal encounter with Jesus Christ the fundamental reason of his existence,” the Pope said. “The primacy of Christ over everything became for him the concrete criterion of judgment and action and the generating principle of his priestly activity, which he exercised while a vast and widespread movement of spiritual renewal was under way in the Church... He dedicated himself with enthusiasm to the apostolate among youth through the Company of Christian Doctrine, gathering around himself a group of young men with whom, on Sept. 1, 1574, he founded the Congregation of Reformed Priests of the Blessed Virgin, subsequently called the Order of Clerks Regular of the Mother of God.”
Benedict XVI then recalled that “the luminous figure of this saint invites priests, in the first place, and all Christians, to tend constantly to the 'high measure of the Christian life,' which is sanctity -- each, of course, according to his own state. In fact, only from fidelity to Christ can genuine ecclesial renewal spring.” Another aspect of St. John Leonardi's spirituality shines forth: “a living encounter with Christ is realized in his Church: holy but fragile, rooted in history and in a sometimes dark future, where wheat and weeds grow together, but, nevertheless, always the sacrament of salvation...To oppose the weeds he chose to be good wheat: He decided, that is, to love Christ in the Church and to contribute to render her an ever more transparent sign of him...And not only this. For love of Christ he worked with alacrity to purify the Church, to render her more beautiful and holy. He understood that every reform is made within the Church and never against the Church.” He died in Rome in 1609, because of a flu he had contracted while ministering to those struck by the plague.
The Pope concluded his catechesis, recalling that “St. John Leonardi's existence was always enlightened by the splendor of the 'Holy Face' of Jesus...Along with the face of Christ, he fixed his gaze on the maternal face of Mary. She whom he chose patroness of his order, was for him teacher, sister and mother, and he felt her constant protection.” He then expressed his hope that the example of this “fascinating man of God,” “be, particularly in this Year for Priests, a call and encouragement for priests and for all Christians to live their own vocations with passion and enthusiasm.”
Greeting the faithful in various languages, the Holy Father then offered his special greeting to Cardinal Ivan Dias, the Collaborators of the Dicastery for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Superiors and Students of the Pontifical Urban College of Propaganda Fide” saying: “Dear friends, may the figure of Saint John Leonardi, to whom you are joined, inspire you in your missionary work at the service of the Church. I greet the priests of the Pontifical Colleges of Saint Peter Apostle and Saint Paul Apostle in Rome: to all I wish a fruitful academic year.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 8/10/2009)
