To Rev. Fr. Daniele da Bassano

Confessor of SS. Leo XIII

Palermo, May 19, 1882

​

Most Reverend Father,

May Jesus be loved by all hearts.

Following his consoling and affectionate letter of the 12 th century, I write the present, omitting to be brief and discreet, what would be my desire to humiliate His Holiness for my simple comfort.

​Called at the last hour, and raised by the will of God to the Priesthood in December 1860, I felt in my soul the desire to consecrate myself to the Poverelli, making their miseries my own, to detect them from their terrible sufferings by bringing them closer to God.

The Most Rev. Can. Turano, now bishop of Girgenti, put my desire to the test for seven years, and finally in February 1867, he allowed me to present to HE Most Rev. Archbishop Naselli, of happy remembrance, a supplication to ask him the blessing of a work that I longed for in relief of the Poor.

​It consisted in gathering, for these, from the good families a bite, to be taken from the daily meal, and the most useless objects of the houses.

​Having obtained the approval of the ordinary, excellent priests and lay people cooperated with me; and the work had a prosperous development, as will be revealed by the Pastoral Care that I send them together with the present.

​Called by the Quaestor of that era, the Signori gave me the grace to be able to prove the innocence of our principles, and I was obliged by the same to present the project to the Government, to obtain a house and help with the best development of the work. It was then that I privately wrote to S. Padre Pio IX, of s. memory, to know how to regulate myself; who, after having taken the phlebitis from the Ordinary, replied, sending the Decree and the Brief which I copy in copy.

​To this push spontaneously given by the Supreme Pontiff, Archbishop Monsignor succeeded the canonical institution of the work and made a copy of the decree together with that of affiliation to the institution of St. Vincent de Paul, signed by General Etienne. S. V. Rev. knows everything about affiliation to the Institution of St. Francis.

​In the meantime, my desire was to see a religious community arise, which, informing itself of the charity of NSG C, who made all the miseries of humanity his own, all devoted himself to the service of the Poor in the final aim of starting them from the hardships of this life to gaudi of heaven.

​The members of this community who, in order to be admitted, must possess no less than half a lira per annuity day, stripping themselves of everything to give it to the Poor, must regard how to best serve GC himself in the Poor, work, beg to collect the needy, postpone to the Poor in everything, preferring to lack, rather than the Poor, the things most necessary for life.

​This standard of living was believed impossible by those who directed my conscience, and therefore I was compelled by obedience to use even hired arms so as not to stop the development of the Opera, which saw itself so useful in those moments, in which for popular uprising occurred (1866), due to the dissolution of the religious guilds, many families languished, and numerous deaths from hunger tormented everyone’s soul.

​I suffered a lot from making use of mercenary people and others who willing to cooperate, apparently they did not have the desire to kidnap themselves in the community to practice the desired installment life; but however this was the will of the Superiors, the need of the moment was imperious, vocations were lacking, nor could it provoke them.

​I had to conform, and under the aegis of a Governing Council, created by Archbishop Archbishop Naselli, collections were organized, Accounting, Archive, Secretariat, Chronicle offices were created, and the Association began to take interesting proportions.

​But from that point a deep pain began to attract my soul, because the conscience warned me that God for my unworthiness did not give rise to the desired Community, and above all they saddened the thought that I had begun the work with desires, that not they were alone and pure charity, and I had used, to obtain the blessing of my Director, such as cunning or human dexterity. So that he felt an ardent desire to fly at the feet of SP Pius IX, accuse him of the grave iniquities of my whole life, manifest the pravid wishes of my heart, which seemed to me to spoil the spirit of charity in me, to be ascertained, whether that desire I felt was from God or from the devil, and to resolve whether or not it should continue in the path taken.

​In such close hearts I addressed the confessor, and he was always mistreated by him; I turned to the Rev.mo. Can. Guarino, former Councilor of our Opera, and to other excellent Priests, but I was never able to obtain the serenity of my soul; so that several times I was resolved to abandon everything, to flee in solitude to mourn my horrid past all my life.

​However the Opera progressed; more than 20 priests shared with me the labors of the collection and distribution of food for the poor at home, a good number of lay people of both sexes also worked there, and even in divided houses, rented, the Council had authorized me to to reunite the boys of both sexes, so that the alms that could be collected with so much difficulty be made more profitable for their souls, offering them together with the word of God, with catechetical instruction, with the teaching of the letter and the arts.

​About four years passed in this happy state, and there was no poor man to our knowledge who did not receive the beneficial help of the work, indeed he came to mold his bread and pasta for the abundance of alms, and it was very nice to see how these material aids approached souls to God, removing themselves from disorder, and approaching the sacraments.

​The corporal and spiritual help given to the Poor was much more consoling in the epoch in which the Asian disease claimed thousands of victims, and filled the city with the squalor that brought misery and death at the same time!

​Except that, having been promoted shortly afterwards to the bishopric of Girgenti, Can. Turano, Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Opera, and at the same time elevated to the archbishop’s chair of Syracuse, Can. Guarino, one of the most zealous Counselors, and almost simultaneously endowed with ecclesiastical offices many of those Priests who labored so much for the Poor, suddenly found myself almost alone to support with my misery all the weight and responsibility of the Work.

​The collection fell largely; home distribution ceased, the houses of the orphans were dissolved, and only the internal orphans were kept due to the grave danger of their loss.

​Government and Town Hall, despite their promises, remained in complete indifference; the collection was always diminishing, and it seemed a miracle if for eleven years it was possible to miserably provide for the sustenance of those unhappy creatures. And since I saw no help, I convinced myself that I had to entrust the work to some pious institution among those approved by the Church, and prevent where my unworthiness continued to be an obstacle.

​I had, with God’s help, been able to found in S. Giuseppe Jato, 19 miles from Palermo (where my family owns small funds), a House of mercy, entrusted to the Daughters of Charity. This occasion, having given me the right to know and appreciate the great works of S. Vincenzo dei Paoli, I thought quickly, in the great distress in which he found me, to turn to the Daughters of Charity, and I ardently begged them for their efforts to support me; but their institution, not allowing to beg, as it had to be done, to support the Work that I wanted them to entrust, addressed me to Abbot Lepailleur for having me the Little Sisters of the Poor; but in this way it was not even possible to have any help, because these Sisters, although dedicated to the same life, yet simply limit themselves to taking care of the poor old, and do not pay themselves for the orphans, nor for home help, and not even in other charitable works.

​The day I received this other refusal I was right at the height of my pain, and when the work was finished it was time for my rest, in the bitterest bitterness of my heart, I set out to write a letter to my Director, to inform him of the ‘outcome had with the Little Sisters of the Poor, and ask permission to call the Stimmatine, and entrust the orphans to them, absolutely abandoning the idea of ​​still wanting to keep the Boccone del Povero Association, which I saw for my unworthiness absolutely destroyed.

​While he was almost at the end of the letter, a feeling of malaise combined with sleep, without realizing it, made me stretch my heartbroken limbs on the bed that was beside me, and in the quiet of that rest it seemed to me to be in a countryside, between the cross-section of a mountain, which stood on my left, leaving in front a sharp sinuosity, which allowed to see the blue sky; at the top of the summit divided into two promontory mountains, one of which extended its base in lower hills on my right, towards which, turning my gaze, I saw a large cave where my poor orphans were gathered together with good Sisters who have always taken care of it, behind whom he distinguished another woman unknown to me, and also in poor clothes and in the act of breastfeeding a child.

​These things all manifested at the same time, and my surprise was extreme when in that woman I had to recognize the great Mother of God! A loud cry and a rapid impetus, which made me genuflect at the feet of the Most Holy Mother, made everyone warned of what was happening; but I no longer had any intelligence and ability other than that of kissing and kissing the feet of the Most Holy Virgin, before whom I prostrated myself with that comfort, which a lost and frightened child can find, when in the bosom of his mother he is safe out of any danger.

​I would have remained there all my life, if the tender Mother, noting me from her Ss. Feet, had not approached me to her breast, where a moment ahead I had seen the Child; and at the same time, which I cannot rethink without emotion, it comforted me to hope: that the work was accepted by the Lord and that it would opportunely have prospered for the great purpose for which it had given birth.

​Then, with a feeling that at the idea of ​​my discomfort and my unworthiness “is to the tender my Son! it is to him that you owe everything, “he said, looking behind me; gaze, which removed me from the position in which I was; because almost at the same time, out of a spontaneous feeling of reverence, gratitude, fear I turned to look for the One to whom I owed everything, and I saw the Child already a boy, at the age of 4 or 5 years, with red eyes like who made a great cry, and composed to a seriousness that forced me to prostrate myself, to ask forgiveness of my ingratitudes, and to implore pity for those poor creatures that were entrusted to me, still asking for the help of his Providence to be able to feed them.

​Then I got up to take the fragments of bread that made up all our supplies; but on returning I saw only the Mother of God, before whom prostrate herself, I asked that she had blessed those little pits to be able to feed all the orphans; and the Most Holy Mother with benign aspect welcomed my prayer and blessed those few fragments, not in the usual way, but passing over her hand as a cross: and I gladly lifted me up to divide them to the orphans, when turning their gaze to the cross-section of the mountain , saw two iron pots in the middle of a large fire and the boiling water jumped together with the pasta she was inside.

​I wanted to look for a canavaccio so as not to burn myself in putting the pots down from the fire, your living faith, that whoever had made me find the pots there with pasta, would have kept my hands, made me rush to take them.

​When I woke up, I was surprised to find myself dressed on the bed, and did not know how; but he thought nothing of what he had dreamed, nor was my heart more in those distresses that had pushed me to write the letter that was on the table.

​I hurried for the celebration of the Holy Mass and then in thanksgiving, to my new surprise, it was revealed to me in my mind: and I had so much consolation that it is still repeated to me just thinking about it.

​I reported all that happened to a priest friend of mine, to whom in the absence of the Rector I usually turn to for some advice, and he forbade me to complete and send the letter that had begun, instead exhorting me not to leave you untried to procure the institution of the Sisters. and of the Friars, who claimed that they owed this Work in my opinion, and not to resort to the Stigmatine except when, having put in place every means, it was clear that the Lord did not want this new institution. I continued to work peacefully in the hardship in which it had lasted for so many years, but no human comfort saw the initiative of the desired institution springing up. It was a continued miracle of Providence to feed so many poor people with the small collection that came every day, so much so that I often did not have the moment to eat my soup, if before it was not certain, that everyone, at least at home, had satisfied; besides, the abundance grew every day.

​Except that one of the Priests who had previously been generous to me for their assistance, given the great decline of our things, advised me to entrust the Institute to the good Daughters of St. Anna, who had been called to the nearby city of Termini for the care of a college. I let myself be persuaded, and I made every attempt to sell them a portion of our small house and go to Naples to beg their founder; but nevertheless it was not possible for me to succeed. But it didn’t discourage me amid so many difficulties.

​Since ever since I had that dream, I always had the Most Holy Mother before my eyes, and for a relationship that I could not understand, I always imagined seeing her in my campaign, which in my nothing I have devoted to support the maintenance of our novitiate, hoping that water would flow under her feet, as in the Salette, in order to improve about ten bodies in the garden, and thus in abandoning everyone, to find the means to cope with the needy.

​It was then that for greater security of my soul and in order to better know the will of the Lord, I went to consult a pious person, who had been greatly favored by the Lord and the Blessed Virgin. After having related your things to her, she with great humility encouraged me to want to continue you in the work begun, using the elements that the Lord had given me without looking for other institutions that you would help. Then he animated me to dress the Sisters, and to try to gather and start the community in the way that the Lord would inspire me for this purpose, and to trust very much in the help of God and the Most Holy Mother, so that things might prosper for his glory. and the health of souls.

​Meanwhile, I was waiting for the return of our Archbishop, whom I found in the Sacra Visista, to ask him for permission to dress the first Sisters.

​When he came, I told him everything, I got permission to dress the first Sisters, and the feast of the SS. Trinity of the year 1880, I had the chance to see them already at work with the approval of the Ordinary.

​It would be my desire therefore to go there and to present myself to the Holy Father, however my poverty and the difficulty of obtaining a private audience have always delayed the moment, and ultimately a serious inconvenience which nevertheless troubles and invalidates me, not that development who took the Opera, which now has three houses in Palermo, and one in Girgenti with an overwhelming number of poor people, and others are about to open, in Campobello di Mazara, in Favara, Casteltermini, Valguarnera Caropepe, Ogliastro, S. Giuseppe Jato; and many other Municipalities that are troubling me for correspondence by correspondence, and a continuous myriad of matters of accounting, secretary, care of souls, etc. etc. who also made it impossible for me to write the present to make the SV Rev.ma another me outside of myself, and to be able to relate what he thinks appropriate to the Holy Father, to obtain, if God inspires him favorably, as in the separate postulation I am eager to ask.

​I prevent you from having the spirit to ask the Holy Father to raise this pious work to religious order, both because it is still too small and nascent, and because I would like, following the example of St. Vincent, to leave it as simple Society that is committed to the service of the poor, exercising all the works of mercy, working and begging.

​May the Most Holy Rev. help me with your valid protection, and deign to direct me in such a serious matter for me and for the interests of the Poor of Jesus Christ.

​I then leave to the charitable and generous heart of the Holy Father the special concession of some indulgence specially granted for the members who truly deprive themselves of the morsel with religious precision, according to the spirit of the Institution.

​Will I have the chance to come to the kiss of the sacred foot? If the Holy Father will grant me much luck, he must bless me especially for having the strength to put myself away in the current sufferings that the fistula brings me, indeed I beg you to always want me to obtain this blessing, because I am forced to travel for the houses that must open.

​The whole community united to me implores His special blessing and that of the Most Reverend Father General, having never left to pray for the High God to keep them for many years and to compensate them for the immense goods that have given us abundantly of His divine Heart.

​So prostrate, introduce us to the throne of our Supreme Hierarch and obtain a blessing that makes us such as we must be to be faithful to God in the state in which he deigned to call us.

​Believe me full of esteem and gratitude.