Born in Mazzano (Brescia) on 1 February 1863.
Died in Borghetto Lodigiano on 19 June 1927.
He entered the Order of Friars Minor in the convent of the Madonna delle Lacrime of Dongo in 1885, made his solemn vows on December 10, 1889 and was ordained a priest on January 5, 1890. His marked qualities of piety, goodness and intelligence earned him the appointment superior of the Seraphic Province of Lombardy in 1901. Called to Rome in 1911 as Definitor General, he was elected by the Holy See as the first Apostolic Vicar of Libya and consecrated titular bishop of Leptis Magna on 15 June 1913 by Cardinal Andrea Carlo Ferrari. Benedict XV entrusted him with the diocese of Bagnoreggio in 1919 and Pius XI with that of Lodi in 1924.
Father Antomelli, born Giovanni Battista, one of the witnesses in the beatification process of Don Guanella, met Don Luigi in 1886 when, still a student in the convent of Dongo, he went to Pianello Lario with his teacher, Father *Angelo da Minerbio, who warned him: "Now let's go find a saint." According to his testimony, he reported this impression already from that first meeting. He continued to see him in Dongo and, years later, while he was provincial in Milan. In fact, it was Don Guanella who encouraged the Franciscan father, not without first reproaching him for lacking faith in Providence, to resume the construction work on the sanctuary of St. Anthony, which had been suspended due to lack of means and to procure him new financial aid in an almost miraculous way. Once in Tripoli, the Apostolic Vicar wrote to his old friend to apologize for not having been able to keep his promise to come and greet him in Como. Instead, he visited, with all his missionaries, the work of * St. Giuseppe al Trionfale, reporting an excellent impression for the good done in Rome. On the occasion of the death of Don Guanella, Msgr. Antomelli wrote to the Guanellian Don Filippo Bonacina: «Oh! how I remember that holy soul [...] I assure you that every time I approached him, I felt filled with a sense of veneration, and something mystical, spiritual pervaded my soul [...] Dear Don Filippo, assist us from heaven, as he loved us on earth. It is up to us to imitate his virtues.'
Sources
- Hierarchia catholica medii et modernioris aevi, vol. IX: 1903-1922, edited by Zeno Pięta, Padua, Publisher «Il Messaggero di S. Antonio», 2002, p. 224.
- «Acta Ordinis Fratrum Minoris», Ad Claras Aquas Florentiae, Ex Typographia Collegii S. Bonaventurae, 1927, p. 25
Guanellian sources
- Epistolary of Luigi Guanella, edited by the Centro Studi Guanelliani, E 2810.
- Sacra Rituum Congregation, Comen. or Milan Beatification and canonization of the servant of God Aloysius Guanella [...] Position on the virtues, Summary, Romae, Typis Guerra et Belli, 1950, pp. 187-191 (witnesses from Mons. Ludovico Antomelli), but also pp. 386-387, 400, 575, 591.
- Necrology, in «La Divina Provvidenza», 1927, pp. 145-146.
- Our wish, in «La Divina Provvidenza», 1913, p. 104.
- Archive of the Centro Studi Guanelliani, Rome, Fondo Mazzucchi, XXII, 19.
- Archive of the Lombard province of the Order of Friars Minor, fasc. «Prospectus for new residences».
Image
«L'Illustrazione Italiana», 1913, I, p. 453.
AM Dieguez
Guanellian Encyclopaedia
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