The pious lady ran home to apply the relic to the sick one, and as soon as he had put it on, he was instantly healed.
Beginning of the Cause for Beatification and Canonization
With the annexation of the Veneto by the Kingdom of Italy (1866), the law for the suppression of Religious Orders and Congregations was extended also to Verona. The Stigmatine Fathers underwent a long judiciary procedure against the Government to claim the legitimate possession of properties left to them by the Founder. They demonstrated that they were not a strictly religious Institute because they lacked formal approval. And thus they won. The climate was certainly not favorable to initiating a Cause for Canonization of a founder whose work had to remain hidden.
In the General chapter of September 1890, finally a voice was raised that there should be no further delay in beginning the Cause of Bertoni. One year later, the Veronese priest, Father Giovanni Battista Peruzzi, pastor of S. Nicolo, but originally from S. Paolo, became the promoter of a movement that was to raise Bertoni to the altars.
Cardinal Luigi di Canossa, nephew of Saint Maddalena, with his authority as Bishop of Verona, on December 15, 1897, set up an Ecclesiastical Tribunal, with the purpose of collecting sworn testimony on anything that concerned the basic reputation as to sanctity, virtue and miracles of Father Gaspar Bertoni. The first to make a statement was the Cardinal di Canossa himself, and the second, Father Gaetano Giacobbe, first biographer of the Servant of God.
In the meantime, Cardinal di Canossa issued a pastoral letter concerning the Marian Oratories. e attributed glory and eternal recognition to the ecclesiatics and laity who had contributed to the growth of this work — so useful for youth , but this praise — he said — redounded in great part to him who was the leader in moving among us this great work, to Father Gaspar, who perpetuated the work of the Oratories in the praiseworthy Congregation founded by him later at the Stimmate, and he lived and died among us with such an odor of sanctity that, now in these days with inexpressible joy, the Cause for Beatification is being introduced, which we are vowing will proceed happily to the point of seeing the Father of our Oratories venerated on the Altar. (1898)
On March 13, 1899, the Ecclesiastical Tribunal moved to the Church of the Stimmate in recognition of the tomb of the Servant of God. Forty—six years after his death, the face of Father Gaspar was still well preserved, as was the rest of his body.
The venerable remains were then interred in a drier tomb made ready in the right wall of the Chapel of the Conception.
The acts for the Ordinary Process on Bertoni’s reputation of sanctity were taken to Rome and consigned to the Sacred Congregation of Rites on August 26, 1899.
As Postulator of the Bertoni Cause they named the Stigmatine Father Riccardo Tabarelli, a great theologian, whom Pope Leo XIII utilized for many delicate and important tasks, like that of preparing the Encyclical “Tametsi futura” (November 1, 1900) in which the Pontiff transmitted to the Twentieth Century the devotion to Jesus Christ Redeemer, the Way, the Truth and the Life of the world.
In short, Father Tabarelli moved the Cause on its right track and obtained the decree concerning the writings of the Servant of God, in which it was stated that they contained nothing that cast a shadow on his reputation of sanctity. Father Tabarelli’ s successor, Father Luigi Morando, at the moment he was elected Archbishop of Brindisi, had the comfort of realizing (March 2, 1906) that the Holy Father, Pius X, had undersigned the decree of introduction of the Cause and had attributed, according to the then-existing law, the title of Venerable to Father Gaspar Bertoni. Meanwhile Bertoni continue to make visible how great was the power of his intercession by obtaining from God special favors for those who had recourse to him. But the Cause was being obstructed in a labyrinth of paper work, that the new inexperienced postulator did not know how to bring to a conclusion quickly: a procedure to demonstrate that there had not been a special worship toward the Venerable; a rudimentary Apostolic process to ensure that the testimony of quite elderly persons who had known Bertoni was not lost; an Apostolic process on the continuation of the odor of sanctity; a continuing Apostolic process on his virtues; new recognition for the tomb. (June 12,1923)
All of this led to the printing in 1930 of a Sommario (Summary) and of an informazione (information) on the life and virtues of Bertoni, on the basis of which discussion should take place on the heroic qualities of the virtues. But a few months earlier the Historical Section of the Congregation of Rites had been instituted by Plus Xl, to which the above—mentioned Sommario had been submited for examination. The result was that it was considered opportune to add documents and studies that would better illuminate the heroic figure and virtues of the Venerable Bertoni. The work was entrusted to Father Giuseppe Stofella and he concluded it, after several years of research with a voluminous “Sommario Addizionale” (Additional Summary) on the Posizione sulle virtu (Staterent on Virtues) of Venerable Bertoni.
The Bombardments Stopped at the Tomb
On September 16, 1937, by decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, the coffin of Venerable Bertoni was transferred from the chapel of the Conception to the Church of the Stimmate. It was a providential decision.
On April 6, 1945, Verona underwent another sudden air bombardment that, along Via Carlo Montanari, leveled to the ground schools, the boarding school and convent of the Stigmatines, bringing ruin to the very walls beyond which the mortal remains of our Founding Father lay. Here the destruction halted. In fact, a bomb of heavy caliber, having torn the façade of the church and broken up the pavement, plunged into the earth, remaining undetonated.
Decree on the Heroic Nature of His Virtues
Discussion on the heroic nature of his virtues took place in three phases: the anti-reparatory Congregation, which was to have taken place on June 25, 1963, but because of the death of Pope John XXIII, was postponed to July 16; the preparatory Congregation on June 8, 1965; and the general Congregation before Pope Paul VI on May 24 1966.
On December 15, 1966, the Holy Father, in this private library, ordered the reading and promulgation of the decree of the Congregation of Rites that proclaimed the virtues exercised to a heroic degree by the Venerable Father Gaspar.
The most humble Stimmate priest was elevated to the peak of a recognition that placed him among the invincible champions of sanctity for his constant and extraordinary exercise of Christian virtues.
Signs from Heaven
The affirmed miraculous cures, obtained through Bertoni’s intercession, were manifold from the time of his death, but procedures for obtaining sworn testimony were not taken, as were needed for their recognition.
In more recent times, when the Cause for Beatification seemed definitely on the way to its conclusion, it was decided to set up two examinations of cures considered miraculous. Both are related to verified cases in Brazil where Bertoni’s sons, from the beginning of the century, had been carrying on their work, especially advantageous for the disadvantaged classes.
I. The first cure concerned the Stigmatine priest, Giuseppe Anselmi, who had been ill for nine years with duodenal ulcer, and had been operated on for gastro-entero-anastomosis, complicated by serious hemotomesis and melena.
Anselmi, born in Badia Calavena (Verona) In 1914, had begun, in 1928, while a Stigmatine aspirant in his city, to suffer stomach disturbances and indigestion. Sent, in 1934, to Rio Claro in Brazil (State of Sao Paulo) to complete his theological studies, his condition worsened notably. On March 13, 1936, he was given a radiograph examination and the result was “duodenal ulcer.” The doctors at the hospital in Campinas, after checking the clinical reports, proceeded, on the following March 19, to operate for “gastro—entero— anastomosis posterior transmesocolica and resection of adhesions to the biliary vesicle.”
Such an operation, at that time very common, was later abandoned by surgeons because it was considered to have frequent relapses. And, unfortunately, the priest Anselmi, after a short period of relative well—being, relapsed into his persistent ailment, more seriously than before.
On April 1, 1937, he was taken to the Umberto I Hospital in Sao Paulo and the X—Ray examination confirmed by the clinical symptoms, led Dr. Menotti Parolari to decide on a second operation to eliminate the ulcer which had reappeared. But the patient, who for a year had not been able to nourish himself sufficiently because of his digestive pain and disturbance, had become so debilitated that the operation was too risky. The attending physician gave up on the surgery and fifteen days after being hospitalized was in worse condition.
In the beginning of ay 1937, Anselmi’s condition became grave because of loss of blood. On May 22 he was afflicted with two lypothymies and by abundant hematomesis (vomiting about a liter of blood) which brought on a serious state of collapse.
Dr. Pignataro, called urgently, realized the gravity of the case and had Dr. Buschinelli give a transfusion that did almost nothing for the circulatory collapse. The patient was judged beyond cure and therefore they proceeded to give him the last sacraments. Shortly afterward Anselmi went into a coma.
He remained in serious condition on May 23, 24 and 25, without ingesting anything, except for a few spoonfuls of water. On the evening of the 25th, he was moved, with great difficulty, to the hospital in Rio Claro, not because there were hopes of a cure but because there was greater care. He remained in the same condition on the 26th and 27th. On the morning of May 28, after a night in which the patient felt at the ultimate of his weakness had theinspiration to turn to Venerable Father Gaspar
had the inspiration to turn to Venerable Don Gaspar, even swallowing a small relic of his clothing.
Instantly he felt transformed and so appeared to the nursing Sisters. He sat up in bed, asked for something to eat and only after his, stubborn insistence did the doctor consent to his taking coffee with some little slices of buttered bread. Then he asked to get up, but since he had not received his clothes from home, because it was believed he was in his last delirium — a prelude to death — he contented himself with walking about the room and making his bed. He was also able to sleep for a couple of hours, something that for many days he had not been able to do. He then requested the regular dinner but, this time, the doctor washed his hands of him. Anselmi, served by the Sisters, ate as if he had never had an internal lesion and without suffering any ill effects. On the 30th, Dr. Pignataro, stating that hospitals were for the sick, not the well, dismissed the patient, utterly dumfounded at what had happened and stating that he could not explain as natural a similar transformation.
Anselmi immediately took up again his normal life and from that time up to today, he has experienced no disturbance related to the ailments he suffered for so many years. He has worked, he has traveled eaten and smoked (even excessively) without experiencing any ill effect.
As a result, the immediate, complete and definite cure of the ulcer disease was considered unexplainable (quoad modum)(with regard to mode)—meaning that it was an event that could happen naturally but not on this particular way or under these given circumstances; and not clearly explainable the extra ordinary event of the immediate resumption of his strength and appetite after the fifth day of the hemorrhage.
II. The second presumed miracle concerns Signor Ralmondo Zanatta, ill with an acure diffused glomerule—nephritis, aggravated by three pulmonary edemas, hypertension, uremia, with hematic urine becoming scarce to the point of anuria.
Signor Raimondo Zanatta was born in 1915 in Santa Cruz da Palmeiras (Sao Paulo, Brazil). He had married Prof. Luisa Robello and was the father of two children. He owned his own
tile factory.
Toward the end of May in 1950 he experienced a general sick feeling that at first he thought was a typical influenza, but then the doctor, Dr. Giuseppe Mendes da Silva, diagnosed acute nephritis, advising a hospital stay.
In the evening of May 27, Zanatta was accepted at the hospital of Casa Branca. He arrived there in a state of agitation, with violent coughing seizures, severe headaches, a sense of suffocation, the urge to vomit.
The treatments being given him immediately were for azotemic mephritis and uremia. But in spite of the medication, the arterial pressure continued to rise, the ureal rate increased and the urine was still charged with dangerous elements.
On June 7, at 8:20 p.m. pulmonary edema appeared and was treated by tapping and an injection of “nobaina.”
The next day toward noon there was a second pulmonary edema, which was treated with a second tapping. But the patient remained extremely grave and the prognosis was unfavorable.
Early in the morning (between five and six) on June 10, a third pulmonary edema appeared and the doctor proceeded to a third tap of a half—liter.
An hour later, it was observed that the case continued to worsen, the pressure, in spite of the repeated tapping, kept on rising. The priest was called because few hours of life were foreseen for the patient.
Father Gino Righetti, a Stigmatine, administered Extreme Unction between nine and ten o’clock and invoked the intercession of the Venerable Gaspare Bertoni for the patient, praying with the Sisters and family members, leaving in Zanatta’ hands a little picture with the relic.
The patient’s brother—in—law, Alberto da Silva e Oliveira, was so sure of the end as to make arrangements for burial.
Father Righetti returned to pray by the patient again at noon, finding him still more grave.
At two—o’clock he again returned to the dying man, noting that he was in that sort of stupor or coma that preceded death. Humanly speaking, there was no hope, not only for him to survive but that he could last more than an hour or so. For the third time, the priest recited the prayers to the Venerable Bertoni and then left to go and take care of his regular ministries in various chapels outside the city, since it was Saturday.
As soon as the priest left, the patient felt a strange sensation within himself, something he could not explain in words, something new, never before experienced, like a tremendous shaking of his whole being, and he thought it had to do now with death’s arrival. Instead, it was a complete re—awakening of his whole body and an instantaneous and extraordinary return to life to the point of being able to eat and get up.
The cure occurred in an unexpected way and counter to any reasonable prediction, with sudden disappearance of the coma, the cardio—circulatory, respiratory and toxic symptoms, and rapid return to normality of azotemia and in the urinary tracts. This was confirmed by the doctors and all present.

Oh how glorified is God both in His gifts and in the humble faith of His servants ( . . . ) Let us become well accustomed, on this day of light, with which God consoles us, revealing to us his loving countenance, to entrusting ourselves totally to God even in those moments when He is hidden like a mother, who also toys with her little children, enjoying in having them search for her, and call cut with sighs and even tears.
Oh Blessed this Father of ours! What will He do with us in Heaven after all the tests have been passed, if already now He has shown us so much tender benevolence? Ludens in orbe terrarum (Prov. 8:31) (Playing on the surface of the earth).
Father Gaspar is persuaded that certain things of mystical order are better communicated by way of prayer than by letter, because “words serve s badly in these offices that are so lofty and delicate and superhuman.”
“Keep in mind and put into practice that great advice of Saint Gregory the Great: that a priest must enter so entirely into domesticity and familiarity with God that he may trust, if necessary, in swaying Good to his intention.”
On closing this letter, Father Gaspar referred to what was nearest to his heart: unity.
“All in the house greet you and raise their hands towards heaven for you and Charity is most felt and finds its increase when the corporeal presence is taken away from our weak and impotent senses.” (August 27, 1840)
On September 26, 1840, Father Gaspar wrote to Bragato: “ I am advising you that, from Monday forward, I am preaching everyday at home, in the new Oratory, after matins.”
This had to do with the oratory of the Transfiguration, adjacent to his room. Therefore, very convenient for Father Gaspar, always ailing, who could move into the new Oratory every evening to give a domestic exhortation.
Rules for the institute
Father Gaspar had aided Naudet in the setting up of the rules for the sisters of the Holy Family and he had helped her in the paper work for the approval of the institute. When, instead, he was begged to exert himself to obtain recognition also for his institution, he then replied that he “was not the figure for establishing Religions.”
In practice he wished to handle matters so that the Institute might emerge without his seeming to be its institutor. The fact is that after the restoration of the Church, the building of the convent, he had followed up with the purchase f Sezano and Stallavena properties in order to insure the stability of his Institute. On May 11, 1841, he was able to write in confidence to his Father Luigi Bragato that he was occupied in the setting up of the Rules:
“Pray a great deal for all of us and for what I am writing in dribs and drabs, if the Lord so wishes and it redounds to His honor. We play our roles according to the grace given us by God. God certainly will play His own parts, nor do I wish to know what He wishes to do. I calm myself, firmly believing that God can do whatever He wishes and He does it all the better even at great distance from our narrow and, often, contrary vision. Banedicam Dominum in omni tempore semper laus eius in ore meo( Ps 32:2) (Blessed be God at all times; Praise Him Always from my lips.)
And help me that we may praise Him die ac nocte (day and night) abiding together in His Holy House for all eternity: praeterit enim figura huius mundi. Addio.” (1 Corinthinans 7:31) (This world, as we see it is passing away. Goodbye.)
These words reveal the way and the spirit, with which Bertoni, after long years of communal life, attended to the compilation of his Rules.
The formula for the mother idea, which had been maturing for a long time, came to him from the decree of the Congregation of the Propaganda Fide on which, in 1817, the title of Apostolic Missionary had been bestowed on him. He established then, as the end of the Congregation: “Apostolic Missionaries in service to the Bishops.”
This was the inspiration experienced during the magnificent mission to the people of S. Fermo in ay 1816, that now was taking its concrete and juridical form. But what place in the Church would these missionaries to the people take? In a perfect analogy, with the Company of Jesus. The Jesuits had to furnish the Sovereign Pontiff with their best elements, from priests graduated with four vows, including that of obedience to the Pope, for the particular missions to which they would be sent. The Apostolic Missionaries of the Stimmate had to provide the Bishops with their best elements, armed with the sword (preaching) and keys (administration of the sacraments) for the various tasks to which they would be assigned. A rough draft by Bertoni summarizes very well his thoughts:
“1. The goal of this Union or Congregation of Priests is to serve our Lord God and His Church gratuitously in so far hope or expectation of earthly reward is concerning.
2. In every ministry on behalf of souls, to follow precisely the direction of the Bishop and to obtain from him the general faculties and permissions.
3. To be ready at every request from the Bishop for preaching, confessing, instruction, whether in city or in the country, in any place in the Diocese, in the Seminary or among the people.
4. In order to do this with great dispatch, to be free from the particular or perpetual care of souls in parishes or fixed places, especially where there is the obligation of residency with some ecclesiastical dignity.
5. To achieve this goal, to pay serious attention to the perfection proper to our own state.
6. To pay serious attention, secondly, to the acquisition of all ecclesiastical sciences, especially moral Theology.”
In 25 years of community living at the Stimate Retreat, Father Gaspar had made many experiments, but nothing was of more importance than consolidating the unity or union of brothers. Therefore, of his 314 rules, 128 of them are dedicated to “De Unitate seu nione Sodalitatis” (concerning unity or union of the Congregation), beginning with the one that says: “You all have as the goal and token of the spirit of our vocation the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ: “In this way all will know you are my disciples, if you will have love for each other.”) (c.187)

Now Your Lordship will well understand, better than I know how to express it, the sentiments of esteem and consideration with which your work must be held by those who, from the little that they can do within the small limits prescribed for them, have, however, at hand a just measure to be able to argue on behalf of the great value of your work so widely spread, and so solidly designed by Your Holy Founder (perhaps he refers to St. Joseph Calasanzio).
And for my part, I know how your Charity will wish to help with your prayers so accepted by God as He accepts our smallness in persevering firmly in the snail amount of good that the Lord requires and deigns to accept strictly from us, his poor servants.
I beg you, through this very confidence, for your holy prayers for one of my companions, who has been ill for almost two years (Don Marani), who most valiantly labored in the service of God” (February 4, 1830).
With reason, Father Francesco Saverio Zanon, biographer of Cavanis, defined this very document as “a precious model as much of Bertoni’s humility as of cordial friendship among saints.”
“I wish to Hear Father Gaspar’s Opinion”
The Veronese Servant of God, Teodora Compostrini (1777—1860), founder of the Little Sisters of Charity of Mary of Sorrows, was a soul very devoted to the inner life and desirous of dedicating to the education of young girls. Bertoni recognized, first of all, her religious vocation as genuine and from God.
After one year of her testing with the Visitation Sisters of Sale and a longer period housed at the Canossa Retreat, Father Gaspare assisted her. “giving order and form to the planned Institute” and to drawing up and perfecting its rules. When It was a question of taking the steps to obtain from the Church and the State the proper approval, the Servant of God never failed to turn to Bertoni, “Already for various reasons — she wrote to Father Sommacompagna — I wish to hear Father Gaspar’s opinion on how to handle things with the Bishop, and Rome and everything” (October 1830). And to him who was also her confessor: “I have many things to tell you; and I think you will believe it opportune to convey them to Father Gaspar.” (October 1830) And she repeats: “one must speak to and listen also unhurriedly to Father Gasper.”
And, after having heard Bertoni, Campostrini wished his opinion to be followed, such as opening oneself promptly to the Vicar General, because “Father Gaspar has urged us to give special attention to this single matter.”
Necessary Caution
Father Bertoni had to keep hidden from the public his intention to set up at the Stimmate a religious institution of apostolic missionaries according to the spirit of St. Ignatius, because the Government recognized only the existence of orders with social goals.
And as a matter of fact his ”Private and free boys’ schools” had cut a very brilliant figure, although under the name of Father Nicola Galvani, in the “Essay on Statistics of the City of Verona,” published in Venice in 1823, by Count Ignazio Lazise, Government Councillor.
The Mayor of Verona, Count Giambattista da Persico, a cultured and industrious man, had held close to his heart instruction and education to the extent that he was defined “friend of teachers, father of youth.” But while he was mayor he “prevented the Jesuits from returning to take in hand the education of Veronese youth.”
This hostility toward the Fathers of the Company continued to spread widely to the extent of placing in danger even those very persons who had open relations with them. Father Gaspar, therefore, toward the end of 1829, wrote to Naudet; “I warn you, for your guidance, that rumor is spreading that Your Ladyship is a tertiary of the Jesuits; and they even cite as proof this: that every Jesuit who was in Verona had a lengthy meeting with you. Take your precautions for future Exercises.”
Naudet did not have to be told twice and she had the idea to invite on that occasion the apostolic missionary, Count Father Luca Passi. Father Gaspar approved: “As to Count Luca, it seems to me a good thing.” (January 31, 1830). This simple statement implies in Bertoni a more direct knowledge of Passi and his magnanimous undertakings. Count Luca, a distinguished priest from Bergamo and a most zealous preacher, with his brother, Father Marco, founded the secular Charitable Institution of St. Dorothy, for the education particularly of poor and abandoned girls, and that of St. Raphael for boys, also poor and abandoned, Institutes that spread to various cities, and whose functions were later assumed by appropriate regular congregations.
The passage of Father Luca through Verona was productive also in this sense. The Veronese Count Francesco Ravignani, nephew of Canossa and, it seems, an Oratorian of the Stimmate, wrote to Passi on Ma 1, 1830: “I give you very happy news about the charitable institution of St. Dorothy because it is already established in six of our parishes, that is, at the Cathedral and St. Zeno, where it was ordaniaed by the zealous priest, Father Antonio Strabui, your colleague in the holy exercises, then in the parish of S. Nazaro and Celso, S. Fermo and Rustico, in S. Lorenzo, subsidiary to the parish of the Holy Apostles, and in the parish of S. Stefano…I spoke with the Reverend Father Strabui who told me he had spoken with the Monsignor, your Bishop, who is very much concerned and favorable to this Institution.
In a short, here in Verona there are many fine hopes.”
It is truly strange that the works of Passi should flourish in Verona right in the parishes where the Marian Oratories were already active according to the method and spirit of Bertoni.
The Spiritual Exercises of Passi at Naudet’s Institute were to take place in June, with rich fruit for the Sisters of the Holy Family and with great consolation to the preacher who, admiring their spirit, did not fail to promote the advancement of a few vocations.”
“I Consider Father Bertoni a Saintly Man”
This opinion is that of Father Antonio Rosmini in a letter to his brother Joseph in July 19, 1831. The brother of the philosopher was afflicted with a depressed condition and he found no relief in any remedy. A trip to the Scaligeri City (Verona) would have freed him perhaps of his misanthropy, enabling him to meet persons who would have understood and helped him. Father Antonio encouraged him, writing from Trento: “I approve of your going to Verona, and I will quickly send you two letters, one for the Bishop, in whom you can and must have every confidence, and another for Father Bertoni, whom I consider a saintly man.”
The next day, he sent him the two letters. In the one to Grasser he says: “Your benignity is such that recommending him to you is superfluous; if such were not so I recommend him to the Monsignor’s courtesy with more warmth than if it had to do with me myself.” (July 20, 1831).
In the letter to Bertoni he writes: “I recommend him to You, my most Venerated Father Gaspar, because I would not know what person to send him to who could be of greater worth than You… I will say only that I recommend him to You as if it were my own self; and he is worth more than I am, anyway, is not difficult. (July 20, 1831).
Father Gaspar then had to repeat to Rosmini’s brother those arguments that he had many times offered to his poor uncle, Giacomo, when he was assailed by melancholy. And we may be certain that above all the manners of his exquisite charity will have brought some balm to the heart of the afflicted Giuseppe Rosmini.
The Threat of Cholera
Father Gaspare was not undergoing further incisions on his leg as in previous years, but his health was never in perfect condition. Now added were rheumatic pains.
In this period Asiatic cholera was advancing from the Northeast. It had appeared in 1817 on the coasts of Malabar, then in Ceylon, In Siam, in Malacca. In 1822, it raged in China, then in Asia Minor. In 1829 in Russia. In 1831 in Volinia, Livonia, Danzig, Warsaw, Hungary, Gracovia, Berlin and Settin.
In Verona, public hospitals were prepared, health agencies were set up and hygienic orders were given t the terrorized population.
The Bishop announced, in August, a triduum of penitence to be held in all churches, but after the one to be held in the Cathedral in honor of S. Rocco that he wanted to be preached by Father Bertoni.
“All caution,” exhorted Father Gaspare, the morning of the first day, “is not enough to ward off evil if God wishes to punish us. So he must be appeased.
…Only penitence appeases Him. But it is necessary to initiate it. Even a few, if they justify themselves with penitence, disarm God…
…The one then who loves his native land, let him take penance upon himself. Each one for himself, and he acts for all.”
Not satisfied with this triduum of St. Rocco, Bishop Grasser invited the faithful to invoke the aid of the Madonna “to entreat the great Mother of God for her firm patronage, that the dreadful disease that brought desolation to the northern and western parts of Europe,” might not spread to the Veneto region. On the 16th, 17th and 18th days of October, a procession moved from various parishes to the Cathedral to beg the intercession of the Madonna of the People that the scourge might be kept far away and that those stricken, might be restored.
In the spring of 1832, the cholera was impending even more menacingly, striking even several sisters of the Holy Family in the nearby convent of St. Teresa. Naudet wrote to her sister: “Admire Providence: who waited until we have another place, to send us this tribulation, softened by Him in so many ways, that all admire the divine mercy. Imagine, in three hours, bringing 33 beds here into S. Domenico” Using a vaulted room, recently completed, the 33 infected sisters could be isolated in the convent of S. Domenico, recently acquired. But, what is more, with recourse to the Madonna, Naudet reported no victims. Bertoni wrote her:
“I am truly glad that the Madonna of the People has saved the life of everyone, and that health is restored; l hope that they will use it to serve the Lord: to do this I am certain that they will have acquired new strength in the Holy Exercises… Let us pray profoundly for Divine Mercy that no other storm burst forth now that the first one has cleared away; our sins will deserve it, and the skies on some sides seem to darken (first month of 1832).
It was not only cholera that was worrying Father Gaspar but, with the revolutionary movements, also the defection of some of the more visible exponents of Catholic thought. He had been a sincere admirer of the French priest, Felicite—Robert de Lamennais, but experienced great grief on learning of his deviation of thought. “The Abbot Lamennais” Father Gaspar writes: “had heard about his errors, and it caused me to tremble, because if those columns fall what about the poor reeds? Now I take comfort seeing that he is in Rome: May the Lord God have pity on that soul and make restoration for the damage and the scandal. Meanwhile we will cling to the earth so as not to fall, if we raise ourselves up a little above our dust (first months of 1832).”
Antonio Provolo Regularly Turns to Bertoni Provolo (1801-1844) grew up in the Oratory of S. Lorenzo where Bragato was doing great work, and when he became a priest, with generous apostolate, he dedicated himself to the saving of souls. In 1830 he had taken on the care of those few deaf—mutes that the young Count Don Ludovico Maria de Besi had left when he was transferred to Rome. He settled them in a house near S. Nicolo and with patient study had the idea of substituting for the traditional mimic method, that of the articulated word and singing considered as time and motion, obtaining surprising results. He opened also a free evening school for poor artisans whom he instructed In everything and, in particular, Christian doctrine.
Blessed Canossa had the conviction that Provolo could carry into effect those “Sons of Charity” whom for some time she had cherished as a complement to her “Daughters of Charity.”
On January 27, 1832, the Servant of God, Father Antonio Provolo, with Father Luigi Crosara, the brothers Vallalta and the cleric, Luigi Maestrelli, brought their project to S. Maria del Pianto, giving origin to the institute originally called “Sons of Charity,” but later, through a difference of opinion with Blessed Canossa, was entitled Company of Mary for the education of deaf-mutes.”
However, when agreement with the Beata was still perfect, Provolo received the order from Bishop Grasser to prepare his Plan. The Institutor himself — the Bishop writes in his Marian Cronaca in 1842 — told everything to the Marchesa, wrote the plan, wanted it to be seen by the Vicar at S. Lorenzo, Father Giovanni Battista Frisoni, and also by a celebrated priest, singularly granted by God with the gift of Counsel, founder of a Congregation of priests at the Stimmate, named Gaspar Bertoni, to whom the institutor always had recourse in his doubts, and was always led onto the right path; then he showed it to the Marchesa, who wished to present it, by hand, to the Bishop…”
Provolo’s successor Father Luigi Maetrelli, in his Memorie Intorno all’Instituto dci Sordomuti in Verona, referring to Provolo’s recourse to Father Gaspar, takes the opportunity to express the following praise. “It was he (Bertoni) who was the gem of Veronese priesthood, the nurturer of the many religious activities occurring in the city, the angel of advice to whom so many turned when they found themselves caught up in the most complicated matters, a profound judge of all persons who had some name, a man of extraordinary wisdom and of a virtue that characterized him a saint, with whom even the most elevated personages who came to Verona for some purpose hastened to obtain a personal acquaintance, and always the effort they essayed surpassed greatly their previous expectation.”