The Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata

The Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata of our Lord Jesus Christ was founded in 1816 by St. Gaspar Bertoni, in Verona City, at the North of Italy.

At the time when St. Gaspar lived (1777 - 1853), Verona was a scenery of war between the troops French, commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte, and Austrian, who had took place on the city and was disputing its possession.

This situation caused over the city an atmosphere of disorder and libertinism, that reached mainly the young people, completely abandoned and full of revolutionary ideas, and also the clergy, who had changed his mentality, because the war. There were a innumerable quantity of injured people and there were not schools for the poor boys.

Rev. Gaspar Bertoni worked, since he was a seminarian, helping the injured people because the war and on the education of the youth. He founded Marian Oratories, where he jointed the youth for prayers and meditations of the Word of God, and also for leisure and healthful occupations, taking them away of the adverse atmosphere that dominated the city. The young people formed by Rev. Gaspar became welcome in all business places, because their good performance and application on the job and on the studies. He prepared  these young people for arts and activities through specialized education, and show to them the way of the perfect Christian life.

He received sacerdotal ordinance in September, 20th, 1800. He was eloquent preacher and, because his preaching to ecclesiastics and at popular missions, he received from Vatican the title of "Apostolic Missionary".

Called by his bishop, he worked on the reformation of the clergy, where he also strove so much that priests and seminarians became acknowledged as models of discipline and dedication.

It was so deep his prayer life and union with God that he lived constantly under the influx of the feeling of God's presence. He lived the "Holy Abandonment", that means to leave God drives his life and, as he touch us: "never having precedence to Him". Then, in all things he perceived God's will in his life, and strove to realize it. We can resume St. Gaspar's spiritual physiognomy with these words: "filial and trustful abandonment on God's hands, even in the most difficult circumstances of his life".

Then some day, in front St. Ignatius Loyola's altar, the founder of the Jesuits ("Society of Jesus"), Rev. Gaspar had a vision: it was as the Saint was asking him to found a Religious Congregation. It would be an almost impossible task, as, fearing any reaction against them, the invaders had prohibited any meetings or people agglomerations at the city. The religious congregations were prohibited and up to suppressed, and even the Society of Jesus had been suppressed, on that time.

But Rev. Gaspar, perceiving to be this God's will, became to join with some companions, with the initial objective of studies. And, as he was striving to get a building to found a school for the poor boys, it was gave to him a building attached to Church of the Stigmata, for this purpose.

The Church received this name because it was dedicated to the sores or stigmata of St. Francisco of Assisi, as those that injured hands, feet and breast of Jesus, and had been closed a long time. To be reopen, it needed reforms, such as the building.

Then, on the cold November, 4th, 1816, Rev. Gaspar came into the building with some companions, to start the school, and this same day was the mark of the congregation he was founding.

The tasks needed to begin the school and reopen the Church were so big, but the small community strove  deeply and on the next year school and Church were working. The rooms were the same for the school utilities and bedrooms, then daily they exchanged bed for chairs and so on.

Rev. Gaspar had large respect to the Pope and bishops, who are the successors of the apostles. Then, jointing this devotion to the title who received from Vatican, in this manner he defined the Motto of his Congregation: "Apostolic Missionaries for the Assistance of Bishops".

The rules for the Congregation he was writing little by little, as he was felling the divine inspiration for that. But, fundamentally, the Stigmatines ought to dedicate to the preaching of the Word of God, with retreats and popular missions, to the education of the youth and to clergy, following the steps of their founder.

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