Carsoli. “The election of a new superior is an important phase in the development of any religious congregation, even more so than one as important as the Benedictine Congregation of the Reparatory Sisters of the Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ (designated with the initials BRSV). But why so important? The purpose of every religious order should be to serve the Church by bringing men to eternal life and from this point of view the charism of this congregation has proved to be an authentic forge of holiness due to the high number of beatification processes of those who have been linked to the spread of this devotion.
The procedures for the election of the new abbess, mother Maurizia Biancucci, took place in the second half of October 2022 during a general chapter that was held for the first time outside the mother house, and more precisely in one of their convents. , that of San Francesco in the locality of Poggio Cinolfo, forania di Carsoli in the Marsica, shortly after the border with the province of Rome “.
Thus in a note Alberto Carosa tells of the exciting ceremony that was held in an enchanting village, hidden in a corner of Abruzzo.
“A solemn mass at the end of the chapter was celebrated by HE Cardinal Beniamino Stella in the parish church of the Assumption in Poggio, together with the parish priest Don Agostino Amedzramedo, on the morning of Tuesday 25 October. On 11 June 2021 Pope Francis had accepted his resignation from the post of prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy due to having reached the age limit, but begging him to remain until the taking of possession of his successor, the South Korean Lazarus You Heung-sik, former bishop of Daejeon.
In his touching homily, the ex-prefect addressed an urgent and heartfelt appeal to the religious present, inviting them “with simplicity, humility and poverty like small seeds to become leaven, to become clay according to the biblical expression to let themselves be molded by the artist. Lord ”for their and others’ sanctification for the benefit of the common good of society.
The newly elected Superior Mother Maurizia echoed the words of the cardinal in her short speech at the end of the Eucharistic celebration, reaffirming that what His Eminence had just said was exactly what was done in his earthly life by the founder of the order, the venerable Father Ildebrando Gregori ( 1894 – 1985), born Alfredo Antonio Gregori, a native of Poggio Cinolfo. And therefore the choice of the seat of the chapter was not at all casual, but linked precisely to the precise desire to return to “drink at the source”, that source from which the earthly and then ultra-earthly itinerary of Abbot Ildebrando had begun. In fact, as the nun pointed out, “I am sure that Father Gregori is here with us now in this church”, where he received baptism, “which is the first sacrament of Christian initiation”.
The presence in Poggio, Mother Maurizia specified, is only the first stage of what could be considered a sort of post-chapter pilgrimage, which will lead the sisters to pay homage to the venerable in other significant developments of his itinerary of holiness, such as in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles in Rome, where he was ordained a priest on 29 October 1922 at the age of 28 and celebrated his first mass there.
We recall that in the twenty years (1945-65) in which he was Abbot General of the Benedictine Congregation of Silvestrina, before founding that of the BRSV, he was an appreciated preacher, but above all spiritual director of souls, of some of which the Cause of Beatification is in progress. Among these are Mother Maria Pierina de Micheli, of the Congregation of the Daughters of the Immaculate Conception of Buenos Aires, mother Geltrude Billi, co-founder of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Città di Castello and mother Laura Curlotta, third Superior General of the Sisters of Ravasco. An unmistakable characteristic of the spiritual direction conducted by Father Gregori was the devotion and spirituality of the Holy Face of Christ: devotion and spirituality drawn from Mother Maria Pierina de Micheli.
A further demonstration of how much the bonum is diffusivum is offered by one of the most recent cases of beatification process linked to the devotion to the Holy Face, that of Father Domenico da Cese, a small town halfway between Avezzano and Tagliacozzo. As reported by the local news portal Marsica live (18 October 2022), a group of devout Marsicans founded an association named after Father Domenico da Cese (1905-1978), born Emidio Petracca, thus officially sanctioning the birth in Marsica of a prayer group in honor of the Holy Face of Manoppello, inspired by the values of the Gospel and the memory of the venerable Father Domenico. Joined the Capuchin friars in 1921, he was an apostle of the Holy Face of Manoppello, a town not too far from Chieti in the Abruzzo hinterland, where a relic traditionally believed to be the image imprinted on the cloth with which Veronica wiped the holy face has been venerated for 400 years. of Jesus, a relic also venerated by the then Pope Benedict XVI who went there on 1 September 2006.
Last notation. That Father Gregori was actually present, according to the words of Mother Maurizia, could be inferred from the fact that the final mass was initially set for another day, while on the other hand, due to a series of circumstances, they were obliged to celebrate it on Tuesday, precisely the day traditionally dedicated to the Holy Face: coincidence or Providence? ”.
In the convent of Poggio Cinolfo the election of the new Superior of the Sisters of the Holy Face