Brother GIOVANNI VACCARI was born in Sanguinetto, in the Verona area, on June 5, 1913; he enters Fara Novarese where, after an attempt to learn Greek and Latin, he is convinced by Don Michele Bacciarini to become his coadjutor brother. He perpetually professed in Barza d'Ispra on 12 September 1939 on the eve of the world war, which had already begun with the invasion of Poland by the Germans. On two occasions he was in service for more than 12 years with Cardinal Clemente Micara in Rome. He then leaves for Spain after spending the last years of his life in a commendable commitment in the vocational field, cut short by a road accident on October 9, 1971.
The spiritual legacy of brother Giovanni Vacari
Imitation elements bequeathed
Devotion to Mary Most Holy.
His brief spiritual testament is totally Marian: "Love you, O Mary, and make yourself loved at all costs". “My mother, my trust, you take care of it, I abandon myself in you, I am sure of you”. “Oh Mary, help me to live a more intense interior life and to become a saint in the exercise of charity”. “When, O Immaculate Virgin, will I be freed from this body of death and will I come to see you eternally in Paradise?” ( November 1, 1955).
“Everything is in your hands and I have placed everyone in your heart. Will it be the last time? When will I see you in heaven?” (1970 in Lourdes the year before he died).
His joyful commitment to vocation ministry.
“ I can affirm that I have not met any person who was not admired by the holiness of Brother Giovanni. His were simple words and in poor Spanish, but there was something extraordinary in them that enchanted young and old” (Sister Nair Damè, Guanellian).
His "secret of success"? Prepend the prayer to the word:
“ I have accompanied Brother Giovanni several times on his visits to families of pupils. Entering the houses he took off his biretta, greeted courteously and began to recite with great devotion an Ave Maria, an invocation to the Sacred Heart and to Saint Joseph; then he would start talking about the Lord, Our Lady, Saint Joseph and our Work in such a way that young and old hung on his lips, enthusiastic and moved” (Jesùs Nunez Pelayo, Past Pupil).
Brother Giovanni Vaccari's path to holiness
The prerogative of the path of holiness: following God with joy and simplicity!
The evangelical page that could summarize his life is that of Martha and Mary.
Backbone of his path to holiness: following God, in the footsteps of Don Guanella, living joy and simplicity.
Key elements in its formation:
his large family (15 children). His father Pietro married twice, the first with Clementina Passilonga with whom he had six children and the second with Giuseppina Carmela Magnani with whom he had nine children: Giovanni was the eldest of the nine. From the family he learned:
- piety with breath of the soul;
- the work of the fields, the custody of the livestock, the cultivation of the vegetable garden;
- good and austere education;
- the spiritual life true support of life.
In his notes, Brother Giovanni writes: “Every evening, while my mother was making good polenta, she taught me and Marcello the prayers. Kneeling on a chair and facing the side from which the image of the Holy Family hung, our good mother suggested the sign of the cross to us word for word, and then she went on with her entire repertoire ”. “Holy cross, worthy cross! God look at me, God marks me... otherwise it was not well marked, in reparation I will base the tera three times for the passion of your death".
And again brother Giovanni: “Autumn and winter evenings usually went like this: after dinner, father began the holy Rosary and we all, kneeling with our elbows on the table, answered. The mother worked in silence with the help of the sisters”.
The village school.
Giovanni's elderly teacher wrote about him: “ He was distinguished by his generosity towards his companions and by his cheerfulness; polite and kind to everyone. Arithmetic was his bogeyman… ”.
His pastor.
Don Antonio Romagnoli who was able to see in Giovanni the signs of a vocation and prepared him himself through repeat meetings for the big step of entering the seminary in Verona. Due to his inability to pass the exams, especially in mathematics and Latin, Giovanni left the seminary immediately.
The seminar.
After the first impact with the city of Verona, dizzying for a country boy, Giovanni easily adapted to the rhythms of life in the closed seminary. Unfortunately, however, studies were not his strong point: mathematics, Latin ... impassable mountains. The exams, he said, were a disaster ... and he was discharged.
He returned the same day as the exams at Sanguinetto; a little time to forget the sad adventure and then his life begins again as before, in the family, in the fields, in the church. He dedicated himself to the young people of Catholic Action who soon elected him their president. Helped by his parish priest, he continued to take care of his spiritual life so as to arouse the interest of various religious passing through his country. But Giovanni replied to everyone: "I really don't feel like becoming a friar".
The Don Guanella Opera
And here is also the hour of mercy for him. The archpriest of Casaleone, don Luigi Arduini, with whom an aunt of Giovanni carried out the role of maid, knowing his intention, supported him with don Michele Bacciarini, then director of the Guanellian studentate in Fara Novarese, who welcomed him gladly based on the good presentation offered by Don Arduini.
Giovanni therefore entered the work of Don Guanella on the evening of 20 October 1933, the Holy Year of the Redemption. He is enrolled in the V gymnasium, but even here the scholastic difficulties emerge immediately in the first days of school. While various possibilities of recovery are hypothesized among the professors, the director's judgment is categorical: better let it go! Be a lay brother!
Giovanni's reaction was very harsh: Not even for a dream!
Giovanni took it a bit even with the Madonna of the Sanctuary of the Comuna to whom he had entrusted himself several times in difficulties. He confided himself later: “Only the Lord knows how much I suffered! And I spent that Christmas fixed in one decision: to go home”
Only the cunning or rather wisdom of the spiritual father manages to question his decision: "John, what if you lose your soul when you go away?". His answer was ready: "Then I'll stay".
Life changes rapidly and he is given the job of assistant cook and shortly after that of head cook. At the end of the year Fr Michele Bacciarini's judgment in view of admission to the novitiate said: “Exemplary moral conduct; meek and obedient character”.
On 8 September 1934 Giovanni and his companions inaugurated the new novitiate in Barza d'Ispra. In the following two years the structure was completed and on 18 November 1936 Cardinal Ildefonso Schuster, archbishop of Milan, consecrated the current church.
“The kitchen is the altar of your mass, the pots are your sacred vessels: Providence is inside”. These words of good wishes from a missionary friend to Brother Giovanni create harmony and serenity in his life and in his now defined mission: you will be the cook of the community!
Those who followed him in those years affirm: “To pray and to suffer were the words often repeated by Don Guanella. John made them his own, imbuing his hardworking day with a spirit of sacrifice, humility, obedience, charity, meekness, patience".
Don Luciano Botta, his novitiate companion writes: “During the second year in Barza I fell ill for a long time and was almost isolated from my companions. Brother Giovanni, taking advantage of the few free moments, often came to see me and console me. He did everything to treat me with a certain respect, as the case required, but with such delicacy that I almost didn't notice it. This has always been his style: discretion, common sense, delicacy and goodness of mind."
He was admitted to his first profession on 12 September 1936 with these notes from the Master of Novices, Don Michele Bacciarini: “Meek and open character; excellent observance of the rules; firm and fervent piety; vocation of the safest; weak but healthy constitution; good aptitudes for the kitchen”.
Perhaps precisely because of this last note, Brother Giovanni remained in Barza d'Ispra in the kitchen until 1950 (16 years old) when the Sisters Daughters of Santa Maria della Provvidenza arrived to relieve him. A long period marked also by the war which sees Brother Giovanni industrious in all possible and imaginable ways to provide the necessary and cook it to feed his community.
Not only the kitchen, however, in these years is the place of his apostolate. The hamlet of Monteggia, isolated in the woods, close to the Euratom complex, experienced its significant presence. In the months of May and October, he gathered families in front of the Marian aedicules that he himself built to pray the Holy Rosary and hold a prayer. They called him the "curate of Monteggia" who "spoke better than a priest" especially in his thoughts on the Madonna.
It's time for a leap in quality: from the kitchen of Barza d'Ispra he is catapulted into the Palazzo della Cancelleria Apostolica in Rome, with the role of domestic and handyman for Cardinal Clemente Micara, the Pope's vicar for the Diocese of Rome and protector of Congregation of the Servants of Charity.
It was presented to the Cardinal on a most auspicious day, November 1, 1950, the day of the proclamation of the Dogma of the Assumption. While already savoring the opportunity to participate in this event, he hears the Cardinal say: "Stay at home and wait for the apartment to be cleaned".
Later he commented himself: “ The event was celebrated a few steps away, but I was excluded from it. I couldn't hold back the tears. It was only a moment of weakness from which I promptly recovered saying to myself: Our Lady wanted it!”.
His stay in Rome lasted only one year; something hadn't gone right. Brother Giovanni returned very happy to Barza and his Monteggia.
Towards the end of 1954, at the close of the Marian Year proclaimed by Pius XII, Cardinal Micara requested the presence of Brother Giovanni at his side and from this moment on, a marvelous understanding grew between the two. The testimonies we possess of this period are many. I mention a few:
“ Ah, you Guanellians, how well you treat your cardinal protector! We all need to have a Brother John by our side!” (Cardinal Hundred).
“I met Brother Giovanni around 1950, at the house of Cardinal Micara for whom he provided domestic services. I was struck by his humble but dignified attitude from the beginning, and I soon realized that under his great simplicity Brother John hid an uncommon inner richness… A deeply convinced religious and happy with his choice, a man of faith and compassion; he was humble and patient, he had a great spirit of sacrifice; he especially had the true spirit of charity of Don Guanella, an industrious charity, which is not poured out in words, but which pays in person” (Cardinal Ferdinando Antonelli, secretary of the Congregation for the Cause of Saints).
"I have always noticed in him not only the profound religious conviction that transpired from his words, but also a great spirit of prayer and union with God" (Cardinal Sergio Guerri).
Cardinal Micara for his part rewarded his faithful servant several times. He wanted him with him in two conclaves as secretary: the one that elected Pope John XXIII and the one that elected Paul VI whom Brother Giovanni met the evening before the election in the Loggia while he was walking all alone and visibly worried reciting the Rosary: "Good night and May praised Jesus Christ Your Eminence”, “Good night, Brother”.
Micara wanted Brother Giovanni to be present on various national and international trips with particular missions and on 19 December 1963 he wanted to award him with the "Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice" cross.
“Father, do you know that in the Chancery I saw miracles performed by Brother Giovanni? People, even high up among those holding important posts in the Chancery, laymen and clergymen, who, not always exemplary in terms of moral conduct, were inwardly touched by the example and words of Brother John and changed their lifestyle. Words that flowed clear as spring water… simple words, accompanied by a bright smile” (Cardinal Micara to the Superior General of the SDC)
Brother Giovanni served the Cardinal until his death; he assists him with indescribable charity on his deathbed, arranges it in the coffin, participates in the funeral in St. Peter's and then without any claim to treatment he returns to Barza then to Rome with the task of vocation promoter.
On October 15, 1965, Brother Giovanni together with the new priest Don Enrico Bongiascia aboard the Fiat Millecento baptized "Giuseppina" left for Aguilar de Campoo, Spain. A brief interval in Lourdes where Don Enrico presides over the dressing of Brother John (the cassock was also a must for the Brothers in Spain). Brother John writes on an image of Mary: “O Immaculate Virgin of Lourdes, grant that this habit may bring a spiritual advantage to my soul and to those I will approach”.
The beginnings of an opera are hard. In addition to the kitchen, Brother Giovanni improvised himself as a bricklayer, cobbler, greengrocer, driver, but without ever neglecting prayer, often done in the early hours of the morning. In his spiritual diary we find the justification for these "up early": "I need to hear your voice, your calls, your teachings, to see with your eyes and to love with your heart".
However, his primary task is to go around the towns, in the parishes of Old Castile to spread the knowledge of don Guanella, of the Work and to invite young people to consecrate themselves to God. And God has rewarded the testimony of this good servant of Charity. The first group of Spanish priests that the Congregation has today are all the fruit of his convincing word, of his joy, of his exemplary life.
When his mother died a few months after his arrival in Spain, Brother Giovanni wrote: “Mother left earth for Heaven… Yes, mother, the appointment is now for Heaven. Always be close to me everywhere and, in union with the Mother of all mothers, let me spend every day in the love of God”.
A premonition shortly before the accident: "In the name of the Lord I'm approaching Termini Station...Oh, St. Joseph, let me get there with a suitcase full of good works!".
1971 October XNUMX, after shopping with Sister Bettina Bertoli in Valladolid, he resumed his road towards Aguilar, at the gates of Osorno he was hit by a large-engined car which had invaded the opposite lane due to a risky overtaking. The fight was terrible. Taken to the hospital, after an hour Brother John closes his earthly life, after having received the sacred anointing.
Testimony of his brother Antonio
“In our family of 13 children, after faith, work, the values of life, accidents also played an important part: on October 9, 1971 Giovanni died in Spain, on the 21st of the same month another accident left us they took away Danilo, a year older than me, and involved and marked Cirillo in his physique; in 1975 an accident at work killed Pietro. With the help of the Lord and the wisdom of many years lived, I keep in my heart a great affection for all my brothers, the children of mother Clementina and those of mother Carmela, of whom I am the last born, born in 1927, and the only survivor: but of all the closest to my heart is undoubtedly Giovanni, who, having been born in 1913, was our guide: I see him again teaching us the morning and evening prayers and always concluding with a thought, a thanksgiving to the 'Heavenly Mother'. His example of life was so strong, his testimony was so fervent and convinced that he also brought our brother Pietro and his cousin Don Danilo among the followers of Don Guanella. Ready for duty, he always sacrificed himself, suffered in silence, offered his humiliations and human defeats to the Lord with serenity and great faith. While he was a student in Barza d'Ispra, during a holiday at the end of May, for example, he participated in the parish pilgrimage to the Madonna della Comuna, then organized by the Curate don Secondo Zorzella, barefoot, because that too was a way to do penance, but with great naturalness and serenity, with a smile on his lips. He was attentive and close to the young people: he always had sweets in his pocket which he offered to the children; he could do simple sleight of hand to amuse and attract attention; for the young he sacrificed himself without calculations: in the kitchen at Barza, regardless of the heat and sweat, he caught bronchopneumonia; in Spain, wandering among the families of humble districts, he joked happily and shared the poor canteen, wherever he happened to be. Alongside prayer, charity was the other pillar of his life and apostolate: he went around the province of Vercelli begging for rice for his "family", the poor of Don Guanella, and in Rome he collected clothes and money donations which they always ended in silent but effective charity. He asked with good-natured simplicity and without shame because he didn't do it for himself, but for his poor and for the Lord, and he obtained malt because he knew how to speak to consciences and hearts. During the war, at a checkpoint in the province of Vercelli, he risked having the load of rice that he had put together with so much effort confiscated. Luckily four boys on the patrol knew him and knew who needed that rice and told their graduates: but Giovanni wanted to share a little of that charity and offered them a bag full of rice. Again during the war, he experienced another scare in Roncanova, a few kilometers from home, when the local Carabinieri stopped us for a few hours, believing us to be partisans: everything was resolved quickly, thanks to the intervention of our parish priest Don Antonio Romagnoli and the commander of the Station of the CC of Sanguinetto, but certainly the help of the Madonna that we prayed together during the arrest was not extraneous. In 1958 I got married and went on my honeymoon to Rome and so I was able to attend the coronation of Pope John XXIII and get to know some personalities of the Vatican: Cardinal Mìcara, Cardinal Piazza, the Commander of the Swiss Guards, whose name I no longer remember, Sister Pascalina, assistant and collaborator of Pius XII. Despite moving in this environment, Giovanni always remained simple and humble: he treated everyone with great respect and devotion and felt like only a servant. By the way, Cardinal Mìcara, who by birth, age and training was truly a prince of the Church and loved to surround himself with highly educated people (the driver and the cook had degrees in literature) after a trial period does not appreciate Giovanni's service , too modest, and sent him back to Barza. After a month or so, with insistent telephone calls to the superior general of the Guanellians, he returned him to his service and Giovanni, as always obedient to the superiors and to the designs of the Lord, returned to Rome to serve the cardinal in a Franciscan spirit, for many years, until the cardinal's death. From time to time the cardinal granted him some holidays so that he could come and see his elderly mother Carmela, but he often telephoned to call him urgently because he could not be without Giovanni. In fact, Giovanni communicated delicacy and warmth, he possessed a convinced faith, he spoke with firmness, humility and great respect: he was naturally a living example of Christian love". (Antonio Vaccari)
