DON CESARE ELLI was born in Valera in the province of Milan on June 21, 1911. His father Pietro and his mother Marina Pessina of very simple conditions, are mainly dedicated to the cultivation of the land. Don Cesare received from his family a solid religious education and the testimony of a serene and trusting faith in God the good and merciful Father.
Since childhood he has felt the desire to give himself to the Lord and for this discernment he enters the seminary of S. Ilario (Genoa) belonging to the Foreign Missions Institute of Milan. He attends high school, but having reached the threshold of the novitiate he is not considered suitable for the missionary ministry abroad due to him, says the Master's report, "of a too shy character and few initiatives".
Firm in his desire, he did not give up and through the interest of Father Valli of the Oblates of Rho he managed to enter the Guanellian seminary at the San Girolamo Institute in Fara Novarese.
He wrote to the director of the seminary: “I sincerely thank, and will be ever more grateful, Divine Providence for having accepted me into your venerable Congregation… And when, Father, will I be able to come? I wait for the day of entry at night and during the day so great is my desire...".
The young Cesare Elli always distinguished himself during his formative years. He made his novitiate in Fara Novarese and professed on September 1934, XNUMX. He completed his studies in high school and philosophy in the house of Lecco and those of theology in the Institute of Ferentino. The judgment notes of his Superiors say of him: “subject of heartfelt and intense piety, excellent in the observance of the Rule, exemplary and observant cleric, who shows seriousness of life and spirit of sacrifice; diligent in their youth welfare offices”.
On 25 June 1939 at the hands of Mons. Alessandro Fontana he was ordained a priest in our parish of San'Agata in Ferentino.
His obediences were simple: a year in Ferentino as prefect of boys; in Como as head of the Pia Opera del sacro Cuore; in Vellai di Feltre for six years as Superior and then from 1948 to 1986 in Puglia. director and treasurer in Ceglie Messapica from 1948 to 1958; in Bari as Superior from 1958 to 1964 and again in Ceglie from 1964 to 2 November 1986, the date of his death. Despite the fact that Don Cesare's period was one of the most tiring and suffering periods for the Don Guanella Work in Ceglie - both for the construction of the Institute and for the many humiliations and misunderstandings caused to the confreres by people of the common people - nevertheless it was the flowering period of many male and female vocations for the Work of Don Luigi Guanella.
Fixed points in the spirituality of Don Cesare Elli
According to those who knew him, the most fruitful and precious years of his existence are the last ones spent in the community of Ceglie between the Institute for boys and the parish dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. Its most notable features:
A. Priest of great prayer and sacrifice;
B. zealous spiritual director of souls;
C. assiduous and loving comforter of the sick and elderly and lonely people.
A. - Don Cesare's life is described in his will to be continua “oratio”: “The moment of prayer is not an escape but an invasion of the divine in life. Prayer is an exchange of gazes. God looks at me and his eye is drawn to my words. I listen to him and he listens to me; I remember him and he remembers me, I look for him and he looks for me; I think and talk to him and he talks to me. The language of heaven is prayer, and he who prays builds a bridge between the shore of time and that of eternity” (from his writings).
And the people of God who know how to read the richness of the interiority of their shepherds spontaneously wanted to have their say with simplicity and humility at the death of Don Cesare:
I can testify that Don Cesare gave me an example of prayer, of sacrifice, of fidelity to the holy vows and to the constitutions.
Don Cesare was an exemplary figure. For Ceglie he was the priest of prayer, of suffering, of penance; he gave everything for souls and for the Work and deserves to be remembered.
He was the man available at all hours, he spent his days in church, in the confessional and visiting the sick.
I remember his walks were up and down the church with the breviary and the crown in his hands.
When they asked for Don Cesare they found him in church, or in the choir loft on the kneeler like a seraphic to keep Jesus company.
B. - One of the most suitable roles for Don Cesare was that of spiritual director of many souls. He had a particular charisma for guiding souls on the path to holiness. The confessional was the most usual place of his presence. How many hours lived in the willingness to celebrate God's mercy for the faithful. When he died, many people mourned because they were left without a safe, available, capable guide.
A testimony that encompasses all the others: “There are no words to say what the heart of each of us would like to express. The emptiness you left is too great, the pain is too great. We have lost our father, brother, friend, but above all the spiritual guide of the one who knew how to understand those who had the good fortune to meet you… We see you again on the altar celebrating, in the confessional, where you always had a word of kindness and consolation for all… Thank you, dear Don Cesare, for everything you have taught us, for your always ready and effective advice. Thank you for all the times you knew and wanted to console our sufferings, for all the times you forgave our faults in the name of God, thank you for the peace and serenity that you were able to convey to everyone, you were a living example of holiness" (Greeting during the funeral).
C. - Don Cesare had a very particular sensitivity for the sick, for the elderly and for those who lived alone in the town of Ceglie.
The spiritual legacy of don Cesare Elli
As his spiritual legacy, it is beautiful and useful to report the resolutions he wrote on 25 October 1964, on the occasion of the Beatification of Don Luigi Guanella, on the back of a little image which showed the suffering face of Jesus on the cross.
- My role models: Jesus and Mary
- My commitments: knowing how to listen, knowing how to love, knowing how to suffer, knowing how to pray.
- My ideals: enhancing the little things, discovering the hidden beauty, sublimating everything into joy".
This program of spiritual life reveals the reason for the vivid memory of Don Cesare which persists among the people of Ceglie and explains why he continues to bear abundant spiritual fruits.