Saint of the Day – 6 February – St Alfonso Maria Fusco (1839-1910) Priest, Founder of the Sisters of Saint John the Baptist – also known as the Baptistine Sisters. Their mission is to evangelise and educate as well as to promote the faith amongst adolescents, with a particular emphasis on those who are poor or abandoned. Patronages – the Baptistine Sisters . He was Beatified by St Pope John Paul on 7 October 2001 and Canonised by Pope Francis on 16 October 2016.
Alfonso Maria Fusco, the oldest of five children, was born on 23 March 1839, in Angri, in the province of Salerno, in the Diocese of Nocera-Sarno. His parents, Aniello Fusco and Josephine Schiavone, were both of peasant stock but were raised from their infancy with strong Christian principles and with a holy fear of God. They were married in the Collegiata of St John the Baptist on 31 January 1834 and for four long years the cradle they had lovingly prepared remained painfully empty. In Pagani, only a short distance from Angri, the relics of St Alfonso Maria de’ Liguori were preserved. It was to his tomb that Aniello and Josephine went in 1838 to pray. While they were there, the Redemptorist, Francesco Saverio Pecorelli told them: “You will have a son; you will name him Alfonso; he will become a priest and will live the life of Blessed Alfonso”.
The little boy quickly revealed a mild, gentle, lovable character, responsive to prayer and to the poor. When he was seven, he received his First Holy Communion and Confirmation. He told his parents when he was eleven that he wanted to become a priest and on 5 November 1850, “freely and with the sole desire to serve God and the Church”, as he himself declared many years later, he entered the episcopal Seminary of Nocera dei Pagani. On 29 May 1863, he was ordained by the Archbishop of Salerno, Monsignor Anthony Salomone, amid the joy of his family and the enthusiasm of the people.
Quickly he distinguished himself among the clergy of the Collegiata of St John the Baptist in Angri for his zeal, his regular attendance at liturgical services and for his diligence in the administration of the sacraments, especially the Sacrament of Reconciliation where he revealed his paternal understanding of his penitents. He devoted himself to the evangelisation of the people through his simple and incisive style of preaching.
The daily life of Father Alfonso was that of a zealous priest but he carried in his heart an old dream. In his last years at the seminary, one night he had dreamed that Jesus the Nazarene was calling him to found an institute of Sisters and an orphanage for boys and girls as soon as he was ordained.
It was a meeting with Maddalena Caputo of Angri, a strong-willed woman aspiring to enter religious life, which impelled Father Alfonso to move more quickly in the foundation of the Institute. On 25 September 1878, Miss Caputo and three other young women met at night in the dilapidated Scarcella house in the Ardinghi district of Angri. The young women wanted to dedicate themselves to their own sanctification through a life of poverty, of union with God and of charity in the care and instruction of poor orphans. The Congregation of the Baptistine Sisters of the Nazarene was thus begun; the seed had fallen into the good earth of the hearts of these four zealous and generous women. Privations, struggles, opposition and trials were their lot but the Lord made that seed grow abundantly. The Scarcella House was quickly named the Little House of Providence.
Other postulants and the first orphans began to arrive and with them the first problems. The Lord, who allows those whom He loves much to suffer much, did not spare the Founder and his daughters. Father Alfonso accepted these trials, at times very difficult ones, demonstrating an absolute conformity to the will of God, an heroic obedience to his superiors and an unbounded trust in Divine Providence.
Father Alfonso did not leave many writings. He loved to speak with the witness of his life. The short statements, rich in evangelical wisdom, which we find in his writings, and the testimony of those who knew him are flashes which illuminate his simple life, his great love for the Eucharist and for the Passion of Jesus and his filial devotion to the Sorrowful Mother. He would often repeat to his Sisters: “Let us become saints, following Jesus closely… Daughters, if you live in poverty, in chastity and in obedience, you will shine like the stars up in the heavens”.
He directed the Institute wisely and prudently. Like a loving father, he watched over the Sisters and the orphans. He showed an almost maternal tenderness for all, especially for the most needy of the orphans. For them there was always space in the Little House of Providence, even when there was a scarcity of food or absolutely nothing. Then Father Alfonso would reassure his worried daughters saying: “Don’t worry, my daughters. I am going to Jesus now and He will worry about us!” And Jesus answered quickly and with great generosity. To him who believes, everything is possible!
At a time when an education was the privilege of the few, denied to the poor and to women, Father Alfonso did not mind sacrificing to give the children a peaceful life, an education and a trade for the older ones so that once they were grown up, they could live as honest citizens and as committed Christians. He wanted the Sisters to begin their studies as soon as possible so that they could teach the poor and, through their instruction and evangelisation, prepare the way for Jesus especially in the hearts of the children and of youth.
His tenacious will, totally anchored in Divine Providence, the wise and prudent collaboration of Maddalena Caputo, known as Sr Crocifissa, who was the first superior of the growing Institute, the ongoing spur of the love of God and neighbour, contributed to the extraordinary development of the work in a very short time. The growing requests for assistance for an ever greater number of orphans and children urged Fr Alfonso to open new houses, first in Campania and then in other regions of Italy.
During the night of 5 February 1910, he felt unwell. He requested and then received the sacraments on the morning of 6 February. After having blessed with trembling hands his own daughters weeping around his bed, he exclaimed: “Lord, I thank you, I have been a useless servant”. Then, turning to the Sisters: “From heaven I will not forget you. I will pray for you always”. And he then slept peacefully in the Lord.
News of his death spread quickly and for that entire Sunday, there was a procession of people crying and saying: “The father of the poor is dead; the saint is dead!”
His witness has been an inspiration of life and a means of grace, especially for his Sisters spread today throughout four continents. On 12 February 12, 1976, Pope Paul VI recognised his heroic virtues; on 7 October 2001, Pope John Paul II, proclaiming him blessed, offers him as an example to priests and a model for everyone of an educator and protector especially to the poor and the needy. (vatican.va)
On 16 October 2016, Pope Francis Canonised St Alfonso, together with Salomon Leclercq, José Sánchez del Río, Manuel González García, Lodovico Pavoni, José Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, Elisabeth of the Holy Trinity Catez
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