Born in Venice on 6 June 1875.
Died in Rome on February 10, 1950.
In 1888, during the centenary celebrations of S. Luigi Gonzaga in Venice, he met Msgr. Sarto, who two years later wanted him in the Patriarchate as a family member. He was called to Rome by Pius X on August 12, 1903 to assist Msgr. Bressan in the Pontifical Private Secretariat. He ended his ecclesiastical career as a canon of Santa Maria Maggiore in December 1914, dying in the S. Carlo boarding house, after long sufferings, "much esteemed for his virtues and for his priestly fervor", after having lived "in the intimacy of the great pontiff who entrusted him with delicate tasks».
On 24 September 1905, expressly delegated by Pius X, Msgr. Pescini blessed the new oratory of the agricultural colony of Monte Mario in the presence of Don Guanella. As vicar of Msgr. Bressan, Don Guanella addressed to Msgr. Fish out his instances in the rather rare absences of the owner of the Private Secretariat. So in the early days of 1909, when Don Guanella offered houses and staff to help the victims of the Calabria earthquake. Instead, Don Luigi made specific reference to this papal secretary as regards the gifts granted by the pope for the new churches that he was building. Mons. Pescini, like the other papal secretaries, not only favored don Guanella when he went to the Apostolic Palace, facilitating his access to the presence of the pontiff, but he willingly went to visit him in his Roman institutions, sometimes accompanying some prelate. But, in addition to these fleeting visits, from 1910 Don Pescini had assumed a pastoral commitment with the Guanellian work that he would carry on for twenty-five years: the direction of the association of the Daughters of Mary in S. Giuseppe al Trionfale, with the task of hold a monthly conference, organize their spiritual, associative and recreational life. When asked of the Pope for this service by the Guanellian nuns, he replied: «I am very happy that my secretary is going to be a father to those good daughters». At other times the benevolence of the secretary-chaplain was manifested by making the "Guanellian mission" known to other people capable of helping it, such as those French young ladies, directors of a college, "who every year, to honor the seven years of exile of the Holy Family in Egypt, completely clothed seven poor girls from our kindergarten". On the occasion of Don Guanella's death, Don Pescini sent his condolences, "very sorry for the bitter loss of the beloved Canon Guanella, prestige and decorum of the Italian clergy". Collaborator and admirer of the parish priest of S. Giuseppe al Trionfale Don *Aurelio Bacciarini, Msgr. Pescini deposed at his beatification process.
Sources:
ALEJANDRO M. DIEGUEZ - SERGIO PAGANO, The cards of the «sacred table». Aspects of the pontificate of Pius X from the documents of his private archive, Vatican City, Vatican Secret Archive, 2006, p. 13.
ALEJANDRO M. DIEGUEZ, The Particular Archive of Pius X. Historical Notes and Inventory, Vatican City, Vatican Secret Archive, 2003, pp. VIII-IX.
Guanellian sources:
ALEJANDRO M. DIEGUEZ, The secretaries of Pius X: Msgr. Giuseppe Pescini, in «The Holy Crusade in honor of San Giuseppe», January 2005, pp. 14-15.
FRANCESCA BUCCI - ALEJANDRO M. DIEGUEZ - FABRIZIO FABRIZI, Don Luigi Guanella from the pope. Meetings and audiences 1903-1915, in Don Guanella and Rome. One hundred years of the presence of the Opera 1903-2003, edited by Francesca Bucci and Fabrizio Fabrizi, Rome, Nuove Frontiere, 2004, pp. 146, 150, 156.
Epistolario Guanelliano, edited by the Centro Studi Guanelliani, Rome, 2004 edition, nos. 2170-2172, 1862.
CONGREGATIO DE CAUSIS SANCTORUM, Luganen. Beatifica¬tionis et canonizationis servi Dei Aurelii Bacciarini [...]. Positio super virtutibus, Rome, Tipografia Guerra, 1996, p. 466.
PAOLINA BERTANI, Little History of the Foundation of Saint Joseph in Rome, Rome, New Frontiers, 1992, pp. 55-58, 60-62, 66, 71, 74, 77, 89, 105, 127, 135.
The great mourning, in «La Divina Provvidenza», 1915, p. 182.
[LUIGI GUANELLA], Hospitalization of Pius X - Rome, in «La Divina Provvidenza», 1910, p. 43.
Photographs:
ANGELO MARCHESAN, Pope Pius X in his life and in his word. Historical study of his old pupil, Einsiedeln, Benzinger & Co., 1905, p. 509.
AM Dieguez
Guanellian Encyclopaedia
© 2008 Guanellian Study Center – Rome