Peace returned to Italy in 1814, and in the years that followed
the young Luigi became more and more convinced of his own priestly vocation. In
1817 he became an external student at the Archdiocesan Seminary in Udine and
was conspicuously successful, with a brilliant academic record. He was ordained
priest on March 31st, 1827, the Saturday before Passion Sunday, in Udine
Cathedral, and said his first Mass the following day in the old Oratory Church
of S. Maria Maddalena. The former Oratorian priests still served the Church and
many of the old Oratory practices and devotions continued.
Luigi brought to his priestly work a character both forceful and
concentrated, and although he was both clever and articulate, he was never
given to self-expression or the vaunting of his own merits. He soon became
involved with his half-brother, Carlo, in helping to run the ‘Casa delle
Derelitte’, an orphanage for girls, situated close to the Oratory Church. The
orphanage had been founded in 1816 by F. Gaetano Salomoni, from the suppressed
Oratory of Mantova, a town in the Po Valley, halfway between Bologna and
Brescia. By the end of 1817 there were some forty girls and women there and F.
Carlo had joined the work. F. Luigi worked hard for these destitutes, and a
series of bad harvests meant he had to devote much time to begging in the
streets and shops to obtain food for the girls’ supper. Perhaps this experience
was the cause of the desire he expressed at this time to become a Capuchin
Friar; more difficulties, including an outbreak of cholera, led him to abandon
such hopes. A new house was obtained and a steady supply of money put things on
a better footing. By 1840, F. Luigi was the guiding light of the institute. At
the same time, he began to lay the foundations for other such houses for poor
girls, children and deaf-mutes. He recruited several schoolmistresses to help
him in his work – these soon decided on becoming nuns. On Christmas Day, 1845,
fifteen of them received the habit and were constituted as a religious
congregation, known as The Sisters of Providence, under the patronage of S.
Gaetano.
Whilst these developments were taking place, there were also
moves to re-establish the Oratory in Udine. The first, unofficial, regrouping
took place in 1842, and in 1846 the Oratory was formally reopened, with the
surviving Fathers from the suppression of 1810 returning to their house and
church. F. Carlo was elected Provost and held the position until his death in
1854. F. Luigi received the Oratorian habit and began to devote much of his time
to the Christian formation of the working- and student-youth of Udine. During
the revolution of 1848 he worked tirelessly amongst the wounded.
In 1856, F. Luigi was elected Provost of the Oratory and found
himself the superior of a group of six priests. Soon after his election the
fortunes of the Udine Oratory took a turn for the worse, and as there were no
local vocations, Fathers were lent from other houses in order to support all
the works that were going on.
The advent of Italian unification in the 1860s and the arrival
of an anti-clerical government resulted in the passing of a law suppressing all
religious congregations. This was a death-blow for many Italian Oratories. F.
Luigi fought fiercely against the application of this law, and although he managed
to preserve the Sisters of Providence, the Udine Oratory was suppressed in
1867. This was the end of Luigi’s community life as an Oratorian, but not the
end of his devotion to S Philip and the Oratory. He maintained Oratorian
principles and practices to the end of his life, always signing himself ‘F.
Luigi of the Oratory’. He left his possessions to the Congregation should it
ever be re-established, and left instructions that on his grave the words
‘Presbyter Oratorii’ should appear.
The remaining years of Luigi’s life saw him devoted to
furthering the work of the Sisters of Providence and also acting as a
redoubtable champion of Blessed Pope Pius IX and his policies. After an illness
of three months, he died on April 3rd, 1884, and was buried in his home town of
Udine.
In his spiritual life Luigi had a great devotion to Our Lord as
a poor and humble man, and he taught the Sisters to see Christ in the poor and
the suffering. Luigi also had a great love for Our Lady, especially Our Lady of
Sorrows, for S. Joseph, and, of course, for S. Philip, whom he strove to
imitate closely, especially in his love of humility and retirement from the
gaze of the world. Also like S. Philip, a spirit of cheerfulness and gaiety
marked Luigi’s life. His complete indifference to earthly reputation and honour
was reflected in what he said to his nuns as he lay dying: ‘I do not want this
poor man even to be remembered’.
The likelihood of this last wish being respected was always
remote. Miraculous cures through Luigi’s intercession were reported within days
of the Saint’s death – one was the restoration to health of a dying child.
Interestingly, the miracle which has secured the canonisation is in the same
line as the earliest one recorded.
It
happened in 1996, when Peter Chungu Shitima, a young catechist from Zambia, was
at home, dying from AIDS, a disease now endemic in many parts of Africa.
Doctors had decided that nothing more could be done for the young man. One
witness said: ‘He could scarcely lift his legs, and had developed a serious
case of peripheral neuritis. He could not stay in bed without help. He was a
terminal AIDS patient and nothing could be done.’ Peter’s parish began to pray
to Blessed Luigi for him, as he was his favourite figure, one with whose
charism he especially identified. On the night of October 9th, 1996, Peter
dreamed of Luigi, and the following morning he woke up feeling completely
better. One of the doctors involved in the case, Dr Pete de Toit, has said: ‘I
sent him home because he was a terminal patient, and he returned brimming with
health.’ The doctors agreed that there was no medical explanation for the cure,
and the Pope recognised that what had happened was indeed a miracle. The
necessary documents were signed by the Pope on July 1st, 2000, allowing the
canonisation to proceed.
Peter Chungu is now a priest in South Africa and was
present at the ceremony in Rome on June 10th, 2001.
