Giovanni Battista Scalabrini
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Blessed Bishop Giovanni Battista Scalabrini |
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| Bishop of Piacenza | |
Photograph.
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| Church | Roman Catholic Church |
| Diocese | Piacenza |
| See | Piacenza |
| Appointed | 28 January 1876 |
| Installed | 13 February 1876 |
| Term ended | 1 June 1905 |
| Predecessor | Antonio Ranza |
| Successor | Giovanni Maria Pellizzari |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 30 May 1863 by Carlo Marzorati |
| Consecration | 30 January 1876 by Alessandro Franchi |
| Rank | Bishop |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Giovanni Battista Scalabrini |
| Born |
8 July 1839 Fino Mornasco, Como, Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia |
| Died | 1 June 1905 (aged 65) Piacenza, Kingdom of Italy |
| Buried | 5 June 1905 |
| Parents |
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| Motto | Video Dominum innixum scalæ ("I see the Lord at the top of the stairway") |
| Sainthood | |
| Feast day | 1 June |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 9 November 1997 Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II |
| Attributes | Episcopal attire |
| Patronage |
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Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini (8 July 1839 – 1 June 1905) was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate and the 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. Scalabrini's rise to the episcopate came at a rapid pace after giving a series of lectures on the First Vatican Council in 1872 and his staunch dedication to catechism which led Pope Pius IX to dub him as the "Apostle of the Catechism"; successive popes Leo XIII and Pius X held him in incredible esteem and both failed to convince him accept archdioceses or the cardinalate. He made five pastoral visits across his diocese which proved to be an exhaustive but effective mission of evangelization and his efforts at reforming seminaries and pastoral initiatives earned him praise even from the secular detractors who criticized him for his strict obedience to the pope.
The bishop's episcopal tenure resulted in the establishment of the "Saint Raphael Association" dedicated to the care of Italian migrants which proved to be a cause he held close to his heart. This solidified through the actions of his twin religious congregations and his visits to both Brazil and the United States of America where he went to meet Italian immigrants. He also dealt with the Paolo Miraglia-Gulotti schism that took place in his diocese and had known the faux-bishop after ordaining him in 1879. Scalabrini also held three important episcopal gatherings in his diocese that revitalized parish and diocesan practices and made his diocese the ground for the first-ever National Catechetical Congress in 1899; he was in the process of planning another before his death that was later celebrated in 1910.
Scalabrini's holiness was well-renowned across the Italian peninsula and there were countless who attested to his saintliness in an ensuring canonization process; his first title at the outset of the process was that of a Servant of God that Pope Pius XI bestowed upon him on 30 June 1926 while the confirmation of his heroic virtue allowed for Pope John Paul II to title him as Venerable on 16 March 1987. John Paul II later beatified Scalabrini in Saint Peter's Square on 9 November 1997.
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Wikipedia