Gennaro Maria Sarnelli

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Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II
Feast30 June
Attributes

Gennaro Maria Sarnelli (12 September 1702 – 30 June 1744) was an

Hospital of the Incurables where he call to the priesthood blossomed. His apostolic zeal knew no limits: he preached missions and aided his friend Liguori in his work; he tended to the sick and helped to get girls out of prostitution despite the threats levelled against him.[1]

Sarnelli's fame for holiness was a well-known fact during his life. His beatification cause opened in 1861 in

Venerable on 2 December 1906. Pope John Paul II beatified him in mid-1996.[2]

Life

Gennaro Maria Sarnelli was born in

Bishop of Muro Lucano
Andrea Sarnelli (d. 15-09-1707).

From his childhood he was noted for being modest as well as for his self-denial and his great diligence in his studies. He was obedient to his parents though when he perceived he was disobedient he begged their pardon and would either kiss their hand or throw himself at their feet. He often visited the church of Saint Francis Xavier as a child.

Jesuit but his father objected due to his age and directed him to learn law instead; the beatification of John Francis Regis was also an influence in his decision.[4] He studied jurisprudence and earned his doctorate in civil and canon law in 1722.[5]

Sarnelli became quite successful and was enrolled in the Congregation of the Knights of the Legal and Medical Professions directed by the Pious Workers of Saint Nicholas of Toledo. One of the rules of this association was visiting the sick in the

Hospital of the Incurables. It was while tending to the ill in the hospital that his call to become a priest developed to the point he could not ignore it.[2]

In September 1728 he abandoned the bar and decided to become a priest after commencing his ecclesial studies; Cardinal

Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori after the two first met in Chiaiano
.

In June 1733 he travelled to

coast of Amalfi from 1735 to April 1736 (Easter; missions in Salerno and Amalfi) when Sarnelli's health started to decline. He had to return to Naples where he spent the next decade in a poor apartment with one religious as a companion. In 1741 he prepared for the planned canonical visitation of Cardinal Giuseppe Spinelli and participated in missions at Casali. Having become aware of the rampant corruption of young women, he decided to direct all his work against prostitution.[3] But doing this work earned him threats from the criminal element that made profit from this.[4]
In April 1744 he stopped preaching altogether because his health became so dire.

Sarnelli died at 10:00am on 30 June 1744. His old friend Liguori was present at his bedside and noted a sweet odour that remained in the room even long after Sarnelli was buried; the religious Francesco Tartaglione and the novice Francisco Romito were also present. His brother Domenico was so overcome with emotion he did not want to leave the room where his brother's remains were.[1] He was buried on 2 July 1744 in the parish church of Santa Maria dell'Aiuto in Naples (in the San Nicola chapel) though later reinterred in the Redemptorist church of Santi Alfonso e Antonio at Tarsia in Naples. His remains were moved again on 25 October 1994 to the Redemptorist church of La Santissima Trinità in Ciorani.

Beatification

The beatification cause opened in the Naples archdiocese with Cardinal Sisto Riario Sforza opening the informative process in 1861. The formal introduction to the cause came under Pope Pius IX on 3 December 1874 and Sarnelli became titled as a Servant of God.[6] The confirmation of his life of heroic virtue allowed for Pope Pius X to name him as Venerable on 2 December 1906.[6]

Sarnelli's beatification depended on one miraculous healing to be verified and approved. One such case was investigated in a diocesan process with the

Saint Peter's Square on 12 May 1996.[5]

The current postulator for this cause is the Redemptorist priest Antonio Marrazzo.

Writings

In his writings he pointed out that the ministers of state bore great responsibilities that could not be ignored, while the effect of his exhortations on public life aided him in his pastoral mission but also earned him praise from the faithful. He insisted on meditation as vital for perseverance and demonstrated that all could reach this and make it a practice. He wrote so much on this - and promoted it so much - that after his death

indulgences to meditation on 16 December 1746.[7]

His old friend St. Alphonsus Liguori was his first biographer.

A complete edition of Sarnelli's works, Opere complete del Ven. Servo di Dio, P.D. Gennaro Maria Sarnelli was published in 1889 at Naples, by the Tipografia Largo S. Martino, No. 4, as follows:

  • Il Mondo santificato (1737), 2 volumes
  • Il Mondo reformato, 2 volumes
  • L'Anima illuminata
  • L'Anima desolata
  • Il Cristiano illuminato, dirretto ed ammaestrato
  • Il Cristiano santificato
  • Le Glorie e Grandezze della Divina Madre
  • Devozioni pratiche per onorare la SS. Trinita e Maria Santissima e Devozioni per apparecchio ad una buona morte
  • Lettere spirituali
  • Della discrezione degli Spiriti
  • L'Ecclesiastico Santificato
  • Contro il vizio della bestemmia
  • Ragioni Cattoliche, legali e politiche, contro il meretricio
  • Vita del Ven. Servo di Dio P.D. Gennaro Sarnelli del P. François Dumortier.

Not included in above is the two-volume, La via facile e sicura del Paradiso (1738) cited in St. Alphonsus Liguouri, Apparecchio alla Morte, Cons. 11.1,[8] published anonymously.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Saint Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori. "The Life of Father Gennaro Maria Sarnelli". Saints SQPN. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d "Blessed Gennaro Maria Sarnelli". Saints SQPN. 25 June 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  3. ^ a b Fenili, CSsR, J. Robert. Blessed Gennaro Maria Sarnelli: The Conscience of a Nation, Ligouri Publications, 2015
  4. ^ a b c "Blessed Gennaro Sarnelli". Redemptorists. Archived from the original on 11 May 2003. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  5. ^ a b "Blessed Gennaro Maria Sarnelli", The Redemptorists, Baltimore Province
  6. ^ a b Index ac status causarum beatificationis servorum dei et canonizationis beatorum (in Latin). Typis polyglottis vaticanis. January 1953. p. 104.
  7. ^ "Januarius Maria Sarnelli". New Advent. 1912. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  8. ^ Liguori, St Alphonsus. "Apparecchio alla Morte". Intratext. Retrieved 1 September 2020.

External links

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