Saint Innocent de Berzo
Prêtre
capucin (+ 1890)
Jean Scalvinoni, prêtre
de l’Ordre des Frères Mineurs Capucins, qui s’illustra par une parfaite charité
dans la diffusion de la parole de Dieu et dans l’audition des confessions. Il
mourut à Bergame en Lombardie.
À Bergame, en Lombardie,
l’an 1890, le bienheureux Innocent de Berzo (Jean Scalvinoni), prêtre de
l’Ordre des Frères Mineurs Capucins, qui s’illustra par une parfaite charité
dans la diffusion de la parole de Dieu et dans l’écoute des confessions.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/745/Saint-Innocent-de-Berzo.html
Prière du Bienheureux
Innocent de Berzo
Voici la Prière « Ô
Marie, nous devons faire comme Toi : mourir… » de Giovanni Scalvinoni
(1844-1890), en religion Innoncent de Berzo reconnu Bienheureux par le Saint
Pape Jean XXIII, Prêtre de l’Ordre des Frères Mineurs Capucins qui s’illustra
par une parfaite charité dans la diffusion de la Parole de Dieu, dans l’audition
des confessions, par sa grande dévotion à Notre-Dame et qui aimait passer de
longues heures devant le Saint Sacrement en particulier tard dans la nuit.
La Prière Mariale du Bx
Innocent de Berzo « Ô Marie, nous devons faire comme Toi :
mourir… » :
« Ô Marie, pour que
nous soyons capables d’être élevés avec Toi au ciel, nous devons faire comme
Toi : mourir. Mais notre mort n'est pas en notre pouvoir. Alors comment
mourir ? En vivant comme si nous étions morts, en ne gardant rien à
nous : ni nos yeux, ni nos oreilles, ni nos goûts. Et en disposant nos
vertus sur une couche : la Croix du Christ. C'est le lieu de notre repos.
Ainsi soit-il. »
Bienheureux Innocent de
Berzo (1844-1890)
SOURCE : http://site-catholique.fr/index.php?post/Priere-du-Bienheureux-Innocent-de-Berzo
.jpg)
Innoncent
de Berzo, église de la Nativité-de-la-Vierge-Marie à Berzo
Inferiore.
Beato
Berzo, Berzo Inferiore, Val Camonica
Beato
Berzo, Berzo Inferiore, Val Camonica
Also
known as
Giovanni Scalvinoni
Innocenzo de Berzo
9 April on
some calendars
Profile
Capuchin priest.
Having a special gift working with those seeking the Franciscan life,
he was made assistant novice
master, then director of candidates for the Order.
He died while
on a preaching tour.
His beatification miracles involved cures of terminally
ill children.
Born
19 March 1844 at
Niardo, Brescia, Italy as Giovanni
Scalvinoni
3 March 1890 at Begamo, Italy from
influenza
21 March 1943 by Pope Pius
XII (decree of heroic
virtues)
12
November 1961 by Pope John
XXIII
Additional
Information
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Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
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Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti
in italiano
Provincia Serafica dell’ Umrbia dei Frati Minori Cappuccini
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MLA
Citation
“Blessed Innocent of
Berzo“. CatholicSaints.Info. 3 March 2023. Web. 3 March 2024.
<https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-innocent-of-berzo/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-innocent-of-berzo/
Blessed Innocent of Berzo
Feast Day – March 3
This saintly and wise
educator of youth, Blessed Innocent of Berzo, came from Niardo and was a
secular priest before his entrance into the Capuchin Order. On April 16, 1874,
when he was already thirty years old, he received the habit of St Francis and
soon attracted the attention of all by his extraordinary virtues. He was
appointed assistant novice-master, and director of the candidates for the
order.
It was a fortunate
choice, especially as Father Innocent followed the educational principles of St
Francis. He paid due attention to exterior mortification, especially to
bridling the tongue and to religious decorum. Interior mortification, however,
he looked upon as the all-important thing, realizing that external discipline
without interior compliance is hypocrisy and unwelcome tyranny, which in time
degenerates into outright perversity. With real prudence he often said
with St Francis:
“Let everyone pay
attention to his own nature. For, while one person can get along with less
indulgence, I would not have another, who requires more, try to imitate him;
but rather let him take his own nature into account and grant it what it truly
needs. Just as we must guard against superfluity of food, so must we beware of
too great abstinence. God wants mercy, not sacrifice.”
Charity was the soul of
his educational methods. He loved his pupils, and they loved him. Teacher and
pupils were united in the bond of most intmate understanding.
Blessed Innocent of Berzo
died on March 3, 1890. His hallowed remains rest with the Capuchins in Berzo.
The process of his beatification was begun under Pope Benedict XV.
*from: The
Franciscan Book of Saints, ed. by Marion Habig, ofm
SOURCE : http://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/blessed-innocent-of-berzo.html
.jpg)
Casa
natale del Beato Innocenzo a Niardo
Blessed Innocent of Berzo
A Seesaw of Promotion and
Demotion
Whatever job John
Scalvinoni got he never seemed to keep it for long. After his ordination as a
priest his bishop appointed him as Rector of the Diocesan Seminary, only to
sack him a year later, because he was evidently not cut out to exercise
authority. He returned to parochial pastoral work in his native Berzo,
seemingly taking to it like the proverbial duck to water, only to leave the
diocesan priesthood altogether a mere four years later and join the Capuchins
in 1874 as Brother Innocent of Berzo. His first assignment after Perpetual
Profession was that of Vice Novice Master at Bergamo’s Annunziata Novitiate
Friary; but when the novitiate moved to Lovere a year later, Brother innocent
was left behind with no particular job to do. In 1880, a year later, the
Ministers thought they had at last found a niche for him, appointing him to the
editorial board of the prestigious publication ‘Annali Francescani’. Within a
few months, however, he had to be taken off that job and returned to obscurity
of the Friary living. One thing Brother Innocent seemed to be excel at was
living a life of holiness and the Ministers, wishing to make use of this,
appointed him Provincial Retreat Master for his confreres‘s annual retreat in
1889 but he fell ill on the job and had to be rushed to the infirmary where he
died on the 3rd of March 1890. Blessed Innocent’s body rests in the church of
the Annunciata Friary.
The Widow’s Son Becomes a
Zealous Priest
Born in his mother’s
hometown of Niardo, Brescia, North Italy, on the 19th of March 1844, John
Scalvinoni, the future Brother Innocent, was the son of Frances Poli and Peter
Scalvinoni, a native of nearby Berzo. His father died when he was but a few
months old and young John was brought up by his widowed mother, who had him
educated the Lovere muncipal college in Bergamo where he excelled at studies.
In 1861, he entered the Diocesan Seminary at Brescia and was ordained a priest
in 1867. From his seminary days he began to write down “Spiritual Regulations”,
guidelines for himself so as to make progress in the spiritual life. After his
ordination his cultivation of the interior life only grew more intense. As a
diocesan priest he was noted for his preaching, spiritual direction and
ministry in the confessional. He was also noted for his generosity to the poor
and his mother had to keep a close eye on him lest he gave away everything in
the house to some poor person at the door!
A Humble and Cheerful
Capuchin
After becoming a Capuchin
of the Province of Lombardy, Brother Innocent of Berzo continued to deepen his
intense life of prayer and to crown his deeply human fraternal and pastoral
love of neighbour by cheerfully accepting whatever humiliations might come his
way. In fact, cheerful humility was a hallmark of his life. As a Capcuhin, he would
hours of amusement to his fellow novices by spending hours clumsily sowing
clothes that had already been sown and repaired many times over. He had a
remarkable intellectual grasp of philosophical and theological questions and
sometimes could be prevailed upon by his Brothers to expound animatedly at
length on some of these. A diocesan priest Don Girolamo Maccanelli once wrote
that Brother Innocent “ was one of the best moral theologians in the valley.”
But he also knew how to hide his learning, except when charity demanded he
elucidate on some problem or other. His obedience was exemplary even when it
came to the most trifling of matters. Though tortured interiorly with an almost
physical horror of sin in others and worried often about his own eternal salvation,
he always maintained an outward attitude of cheerfulness and joy.
The Secret of his Joy was
Prayer
The secret of his joy was
his intense life of prayer. He loved to spend long hours before the Blessed
Sacrament, especially late at night. In fact his desire to live in the same
house as Jesus had been a factor that influenced his decision to join the Capuchins
in the first place. One day, when on a pastoral assignment, he ended up getting
locked inside the church for the night by a forgetful parish priest. Next
morning the priest found Brother Innocent rapt in prayer, his eyes wide open
and his face radiant with happiness. The other great focus of his prayer life
was the Passion of Christ. He performed the Way of the Cross several times
daily and recommended the practice to his penitents in confession. The
Eucharist and the Passion, as well sa devotion to Our Lady, were also the major
themes of his preaching.
The Useless Servant
Inherits the Kingdom of Heaven
Whenever his superiors
gave him a minor assignment, he seemed to do it exceptionally well. But as soon
as they assigned him greater responsibility, he ended up making a mess of
things and had to be relieved of office. They never seemed to be able to find
the right spot for him. But the fact that he was beatified by Blessed Pope John
XXIII in 1961, just 71 years after his death, indicates that the Lord managed
to find the right spot for him in Paradise saying to him - “Come, you, blessed
of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the
world.”
"Jesus is offended
by everyone in the world: it is up to me to not leave Him alone in his
affliction. The love of God does not consist in great sentiments but in great
openness and patience for the sake of the Beloved God. There is no other better
way for guarding the spirit than suffering, doing and keeping silent. I have a
great desire to be subject to all and in horror to be preferred the
least."
Blessed Innocent of Berzo
SOURCE : http://saintscatholic.blogspot.ca/2014/03/blessed-innocent-of-berzo.html
Cappella adiacente alla cella del Beato Innnocenzo
Blessed Innocent of
Berzo’s Story
Born in 1844 near Brescia
in northern Italy, Innocent was already a diocesan priest and 30 years of age
when he requested admission into the Capuchin Franciscan Order in 1874. He
served as assistant novice master and then director of candidates for the
order.
Innocent showed a special
gift in working with the young men seeking to follow the Franciscan life. He
loved his pupils, and they loved him. He preached exterior mortification,
especially in controlling the tongue, but he knew that exterior discipline is
hypocrisy if not founded on interior mortification. And as a preacher of
prudence, Innocent was able to say with St. Francis: “Let everyone pay
attention to his own nature. For, while one person can get along with less
indulgence, I would not have another, who requires more, try to imitate him;
but rather let him take his own nature into account and grant it what it truly
needs.”
This ascetic friar, only
45 years old, died on March 3, 1890, from influenza while on a preaching tour.
He was beatified by Pope John XXIII in 1961. Both miracles from his
beatification process were the cure of terminally sick children.
Reflection
Innocent preached
mortification—a phrase that usually brings to mind giving up something we
enjoy. But his strongest emphasis was on controlling the tongue—giving up
careless and hurtful speech. Words that belittle us chip away at our confidence;
the sting of harsh words can inflict lasting scars. Racial and ethnic slurs
undermine the unity of the human race. Innocent also preached the importance of
changing our hearts. Being careful about the words we use helps to soften them.
SOURCE : https://www.franciscanmedia.org/blessed-innocent-of-berzo/
.jpg)
San Costanzo di Niardo e Innocenzo da Berzo. Chiesa di San Maurizio. Niardo, Val Camonica
Blessed Innocenzo da
Berzo
Capuchin priest (1844-1890)
He was born in Niardo in
1844 and died in Bergamo in 1890. His mortal remains lie in the parish church
of Lower Berzo. After the usual studies in the diocesan seminary he was
ordained a priest and spent a short period of apostolic work in the diocese,
after which he joined the Capuchins. He was assigned to various friaries but
the friary of the “Santissima Annunziata” at Borno was the place where he found
his road to sanctity. To forget himself and lose himself in prolonged prayer,
in the humble tasks of ministry, and of some even more humble duties (such as
questing) which were assigned to him by obedience: this was his ideal and his
way to holiness. He is held in high esteem in the Valcamonica region of
Lombardy, and was beatified on 12thNovember 1961 by St Pope John XXII.
Giovanni Scalvinoni had
only been ordained a priest three years when he was assigned to Berzo as
assistant parish priest. On 2 June 1867, he had been ordered to Brescia by the
bishop, Girolamo Verzeri, who had sent him immediately to Cevo in Valsaviore to
carry out the office of vicar co-adjutor. However, after two years the bishop
recalled him to Brescia and appointed him vice-rector of the diocesan seminary.
Responsible positions of authority and direction were a suffering for Giovanni;
so much so, that only after one year he was removed. Why? As we read in his
process, “As for his exercise of authority he was less than nothing.” However,
he could not be surpassed it if were a question of helping a poor person or
staying in adoration before the tabernacle or of reading and studying. His
mother, Francesca Poli, who had given birth to him twenty-six years earlier in
Niardo in Valcamonica on the feast day of St. Joseph 1844, who lived with him
and knew him, had to be careful because everything in the house could
disappear. It was enough for a poor person to arrive and everything useful in
the house would end up in the hands of that person, even a chicken in the pot
ready for the evening meal. Her son used to so with disarming calm, “Anyway, we
can eat tomorrow”; because “it is necessary to consider our neighbour as in the
bosom of the Lord.” If he wasn’t in the Church to hear confessions or spiritual
direction or other ministries, he was unmistakably in silent prayer near the
altar or “alternatively to long adorations he would go into the sacristy to
read an article from the Summa of Saint Thomas.”
However, something slowly
began to shine through his behaviour. His desire seemed to be in another higher
place. Visible on the other side of the valley, lying on the on the slope of
the mountain side, was the outline of the friary hermitage of the Annunciation
with its bell-tower reaching skyward. Blessed Amedeo Menez de Silva had founded
it in the 1400’s and the Capuchins had been living there a little more than thirty
years. His heart longed to be there and to satisfy his thirst for interiority
and mystical silence. In his letters he had written, “The greatest need we have
is to remain silent before our great God, both with our desire and without
tongue whose speech – the speech that God hears more willingly – is the silent
speech of love.”
This longing was the
result of a strong Christian experience growing in a humble family of
farm-workers between Niardo and Berzo. His father, Pietro, and grandmother died
while he was still very young. The suffering of sad separations accompanied by
those deep sentiments lived with the reserve, modesty and nobility of the poor,
was lived in the rhythm of prayer and devotion inherited from a tradition of a
concrete faith, steadfast like the mountains that encircled his home town.
His uncle, Francesco, was
father to him, and had him go to school for five years in the municipal college
until 1861. With teachers of great spirit, he developed that spiritual
orientation of his personality. He showed a quick intelligence (with the
highest marks), diligent application to work, careful attention to the weak, a
desire to serve and to remain hidden, and a intense passion for the Eucharist.
Instead of continuing his studies, which the superiors of the college had
offered him gratis, he had wanted to enter the seminary in Brescia. He imposed
on himself a severe spiritual discipline, set out in his numerous “spiritual
rules” which he called ‘Orari’ (or ‘schedules’), so that he could transform
everything into prayer and the interior life. And so he became a priest, but
continued to adjust his ‘orari’ in his yearning for a formidable interiority or
spiritual life. This will only be satisfied when, on 16 April 1874, at thirty
years of age, with the consent of his mother and the bishop, Father Giovanni
went up to the friary of the Annunciation and began his novitiate as a Capuchin
with the name Br. Innocenzo da Berzo. His Capuchin biography is one of
disconcerting simplicity. After first profession on 29 April 1875 he was
assigned to the friary at Albino. He remained there only a year and then return
to the friary of the Annunciation where he took solemn vows on 2 May 1878 and
was appointed vice-novice master. This assignment did not last long. When the novitiate
was transferred to Lovere in November 1879 he had no job in the friary.
The learned provincial
Br. Agostino da Crema, a friend of Rosmini, called him to Mila in October 1880
to be part of the editorial group of the periodical Annali Francescani. A few
months later, in February 1881, he was sent on supply to the friary of Sabbioni
di Crema. In June he returned to his solitude at the Annunciation friary. His
superiors and confreres would have to let themselves be convinced by his
repeated failures to abandon him to his isolation and to respect its secret.
Some had the impression that he suffered from an inferiority complex and felt
compassion for him. In reality, he made no attempt to avoid the awareness of
his own limitations. Rather, he immersed himself in it even more. The only
external pursuit he persevered in was that of giving to the poor whatever came
to hand – whether they were truly needy or whether they those who took
advantage of his trusting goodness. He often returned from questing serene and
contented with his sack empty, having made actual Fra Galdino’s image of the
sea (from I promessi sposi). It receives water everywhere and then returns to
distribute it to the rivers.
Finally, the superiors
entrusted to him, in autumn 1889, the preached retreats of the principal
friaries at Mila-Monteforte, Albino, Bergamo and Brescia. He managed to
complete only the first two. These cost him much effort which disturbed him and
seriously compromised his already dubious health, hastening the end. In fact, he
fell gravely ill while preaching at Albino and on 3 March 1890 would breath his
last at the infirmary in Bergamo. This see-saw of appointment and removal is
like an antithesis which imprints the attraction of mystery and the rhythm of a
sacred drama on the external aspects of the life of blessed Innocenzo da Berzo
and on his inner secret.
Br. Innocenzo only wanted
to serve and to occupy the last place, “even to the point of becoming
physically stooped; he would withdraw into a corner as if he wished to disappear.”
In his exercise book he wrote, “I will long to be subject to all and be
horrified of being preferred in the slightest way. I am treated too well. I
truly deserve something else, because I have so many debts with the Lord.” This
attitude caused him many humiliations. The friars did not go too much for the
thin fellow and they often maltreated him, especially for his endless Masses
that lasted well beyond the usual time. Even their tugs at his chasuble to let
him know this had little effect. It was as if he were engulfed by the Holy
Spirit and his exclamations and silent meditations lasted a long time. His
thirst for expiation urged him to find invent a thousand ways to suffer and be
humiliated. He always had his calm, even jesting response prepared, ready to
laugh at his own inability and lack of skill. The priests of Valle Camonica
came to him for advice and he knew how to resolve every complex case with
doctrinal precision and profound intuition. However, his “shrewdness” made him
appear inept. An immense desire for purification and prayer was his attempt to
respond to that Love that is not loved. A cruel torment, reflected in his
physical lines, accompanied him: the evil of sin. He asked the official
theologian of the province “whether venial sin could cause infinite offense to
God.” He trembled just at the thought of being able to commit the slightest
defect.
His focal point of his
attention was the tabernacle. In front of the tabernacle he found all this
good. The prayer of the fraternity was not enough for him. The day time was
insufficient. Given the task to dust the benches, he never finished. He dusted
and then would dust again. When the others finished he continued on. They
imposed on him to leave the church like the others. He obeyed, but went round
close to the outside walls lamenting like dove and if the door was ajar he
would stop there, ecstatic. Once he discovered a little door to the church from
the friary library. From that moment on he was always in the library to study.
However, the books remained open. He would be absorbed in mysterious,
Eucharistic intimacy. There was already for him an irresistible attraction even
on the physical level. He could not live far from the tabernacle. He would
spend nights in silent adoration, as he did once in the church at Ossimo. He
had gone there to hear confessions. His face became radiant, beautiful and
relaxed. The parish priest found him like this when he came in the morning to
open the church.
As with the Eucharist, so
too with the cross, the Crucified. He meditated on the Cross continuously and
repeated the Stations of the Cross as many as eight or ten times a day, weeping
and crying. He had become the apostle of the Way of the Cross. “When someone
was seen making the Way of the Cross,” said one witness, “the friars knew that
person had confessed to Br. Innocenzo.”
Ilarino da Milano wrote,
“His temperament was decidedly timid and his personal tendency disposed him to
compliance and submissiveness, to always withdraw apart and stay in a corner.
All the more striking or paradoxical is this fact. The transforming divine
action not only did not cancel this psychological inclination to littleness and
the conviction of being little, but used them amazingly to transform them into
the practice of heroic virtue and into a mystical state.”
John XXIII proclaimed him
blessed on 12 November 1961. He defined him in these words, “a modern saint, a
saint for our times.” But what is the secret of his very simple life? The
“modernity” of holiness is difficult to explain. According to the words of Paul
VI, “the biographers say that he kept his head bowed and it was difficult even
to see his face. But if we look at the reality of this soul, we must say that
he kept his eyes looking up, for as we gravitate towards the earth he truly
gravitated, levitated towards heaven.” He is a saint that fled and hid,
restless in the desire for mystical introversion built on cutting away,
throwing away, destroying, to find an ever more absolute, longed for and sought
emptiness, a “loving nothingness.” And that is how the author, Curzia Ferrari,
titled her splendid biography of the blessed, towards a fullness of divine
love. With everything removed, he could say truthfully with Saint Francis, “May
God and my all!” This is his deep secret which the simple people of the valley
had already sensed in calling him “the Little Friar from Berzo” (Il Fratino di
Berzo),
Translation based on the
article by COSTANZO CARGNONI in Sulle orme dei santi, 2000, p. 239-246.
From an Address by
Cardinal J .B. Montini, later Pope Paul VI
The features of humility,
poverty and renunciation
Innocent of Berzo is
truly a humble friar. First he was a priest and later became a friar, staying
always in the region of his own Camonica Valley. He is a modest, retiring
saint, a saint who simplifies the work of the historian or orator.
Also, it is difficult to
talk about him, because his life and holiness are made up of the so‐called
“negative” virtues; no brilliant deeds or actions are present in his life; what
distinguished him was the fact that he served everyone, in a spirit of absolute
non-retaliation.
These features of
humility, poverty, and renunciation shine out brilliantly in Innocent of Berzo.
Anyone who really wants to know him should not elaborate other virtues or other
aspects but should capture his genuine and, I would say, his deliberate characteristics,
and these are precisely his hiddenness, his humility. We moderns, who live in a
society that values very different aspects of life, almost feel a sense of
unfamiliarity in his regard. We feel confused, and his distance in stature is
all too evident, rather as Saint Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “You are noble,
I am lowly born; you are great, I am small; you are powerful, I am weak”. And
we see that somehow the same comparison is made about us. We boast about all
our goods, about what we are, what we want, and what we can do.
Our constant tendency is
to exalt our personality, in fact to be always searching for ways by which to
develop ourselves, to affirm our own will and the ability to assert ourselves in
life, to possess and to be strong. Innocent, on the other hand, threw away all
these benefits, he almost despised them, without dramatic gestures but in a
continuous, uniform act of renunciation and detachment. He never wished to
appreciate them, never wanted them for himself, and when it seemed as though
they were drawing close, he rejected them. He wanted to live in the most
literal poverty, genuinely and utterly hidden from view, and with a humility
that was not preached or expressed in words at all, but was something he lived
and made his own, together with a search for those real conditions of distance
from the world and silence of the opinion of others, which truly fill a person
with abnegation and self‐sacrifice.
This is the image of
himself that he presents to us, this is what we observe. We see him like this
and we do, if you like, admire him, but at the same time we are a little
uneasy. There is no measuring the distance between us and him, nothing to make
him easily likeable, precisely because we are on two different tracks: we, moving
towards so-called positive, earthly values, while he aims to strip himself of
these very values and reaches for others known only to himself, sufficient and
more satisfying to him than any other acquisition.
We should marvel, my
brothers and sisters, that here we have a true Franciscan, a true son of that
prodigy of sanctity who, seven centuries later, still amazes the world: Francis
of Assisi. Precisely in this art of turning human affairs upside‐down and seeking
delight and satisfaction in things that humans fear, in poverty and
renunciation of the goods of this world, we find a literal almost photographic
correspondence between Saint Francis and Innocent, and this is no small thing:
It tells us at least that Blessed Innocent is truly listed among the “genuine”,
in the catalogue of those who really have followed the example of the holy
founder of the Franciscan Family.
Prayer
O God,
you gave Blessed Innocent of Berzo
the grace to follow completely
the poor and humble Christ.
May we too live our vocation faithfully,
and so attain that perfection of charity
which you present to us in your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
SOURCE : https://www.capdox.capuchin.org.au/saints-blesseds/blessed-innocenzo-da-berzo/
Beato Innocenzo da Berzo
(Giovanni Scalvinoni) Sacerdote cappuccino
Niardo, Brescia, 19 marzo
1844 – Bergamo, 3 marzo 1890
«Gesù è da tutti offeso
nel mondo: tocca a me non lasciarlo solo nell’afflizione. L’amore di Dio non
consiste in grandi sentimenti, ma in una grande nudità e pazienza per l’amato
Dio. Non c’è altro mezzo migliore per custodire lo spirito che patire,
fare e tacere. Avrò gran desiderio d’esser soggetto a tutti e in orrore l’esser
preferito al minimo» (Fra Innocenzo). Giovanni Scalvinoni nacque a Niardo
(Brescia) il 19 marzo 1844. Rimasto orfano di padre, trascorse l’infanzia a
Berzo. Frequentò poi il ginnasio nel collegio di Lovere e da qui passò al
seminario di Brescia. Il vescovo Geremia Bonomelli, all’epoca professore in
seminario, così testimoniò al processo di beatificazione: «Il chierico
Scalvinoni per l’ubbidienza, la modestia, la diligenza, l’umiltà, per un certo
candore che traluceva da tutte le sue parole e azioni, conciliava gli animi di
tutti i suoi compagni. Il solo vederlo edificava, benché facesse ogni cosa con
tutta semplicità». Ordinato sacerdote nel 1867, fu vicario coadiutore a
Cevo e vicerettore in seminario. L’innata timidezza, tuttavia, gli faceva
desiderare una vita di nascondimento e solitudine. Si fece cappuccino e
ricevette il nome di fra Innocenzo. Anche tra i frati ricoprì solo incarichi
modesti.Trascorse la maggior parte del tempo al convento-eremo dell’Annunziata,
donde veniva chiamato a predicare gli esercizi spirituali nei conventi della
Lombardia. Cominciò allora a diffondersi la fama della sua santità. I malati e
gli afflitti accorrevano per ricevere la sua benedizione. Nei giorni di festa
era al confessionale dal mattino alla sera. Morì nel convento di Bergamo il 3
marzo 1890. Venne beatificato dal suo conterraneo, san Giovanni XXIII.
Etimologia: Innocenzo
= senza peccato, dal latino
Martirologio
Romano: A Bergamo, beato Innocenzo da Berzo (Giovanni) Scalvinoni,
sacerdote dell’Ordine dei Frati Minori Cappuccini, che rifulse per lo
straordinario amore nel diffondere la parola di Dio e nell’ascolto delle
confessioni.
Tra gli ex voto
conservati nell’umile casa natale del Beato Innocenzo a Berzo Inferiore, oggi
trasformata in museo, vi è un frammento di fune a ricordo di un miracolo
avvenuto sull’Adamello negli anni Venti. Un alpinista, durante una
scalata, cadde in un crepaccio e non avendo nessuno che lo aiutasse, chiese
l’intervento dell’umile cappuccino di cui era devoto. Dall’alto arrivò una
corda mentre gli venivano suggeriti i movimenti per risalire il dirupo ma,
arrivato in cima, grande fu lo stupore nel vedere che nessuno lo
attendeva.
Giovanni Scalvinoni venne
alla luce a Niardo (Brescia), il paese materno, il 19 marzo 1844. Pochi mesi
dopo una tremenda sciagura colpì improvvisamente la giovane famiglia. Il padre,
in soli due giorni, morì stroncato da una polmonite fulminante. Giovannino
trascorse la fanciullezza semplicemente, facendo propria la fede forte della
gente di montagna. Fin da piccolo ebbe una grande pietà per i poveri, dando
generosamente quel poco che possedeva a coloro che bussavano alla porta di
casa. Conserverà questo sentimento per tutta la vita: quando da cappuccino
andava in giro per la questua, era sommamente soddisfatto di tornare in
convento con la bisaccia vuota. Quanto riceveva in offerta lo dava ai
bisognosi.
Studiò con ottimi
risultati nel collegio municipale di Lovere (Bergamo) e da qui passò al
seminario di Brescia dove si impose un’esigente disciplina spirituale. Ordinato
sacerdote nel 1867 ricoprì alcuni incarichi, tra cui quello di vicerettore del
seminario, ma ogni volta venne rimosso perché assolutamente privo di autorità.
L’innata timidezza lo portava a desiderare di vivere in solitudine, tra
preghiere e penitenze. Il 16 aprile 1874 finalmente cominciò il noviziato tra i
cappuccini dell’Annunziata di Borno (ora Cogno). Quattro anni più tardi emise
la professione solenne e venne nominato vicemaestro dei novizi. Per alcuni
mesi, tra il 1880 e il 1881, fece parte della redazione della rivista Annali
Francescani, su incarico del Padre Agostino da Crema, amico del Rosmini.
Eccetto brevi incarichi e
la predicazione di esercizi spirituali in alcuni conventi lombardi, fu nel
convento-eremo dell’Annunziata che visse intensamente l’abbandono nel Signore,
definito “loquela taciturna d’amore”. Nonostante l’eccellente conoscenza della
teologia, trasmessa anche ai confratelli, astutamente appariva dimesso, con la
volontà di voler sempre scomparire e mai apparire. Innamorato dell’Eucaristia
(se sue S. Messe erano di un’intensità eccezionale), sostava quanto più poteva
davanti al tabernacolo. Amava molto il Crocifisso e l’esercizio della Via
Crucis che raccomandava ai suoi penitenti.
Il 3 marzo 1890, a soli
quarantasei anni, ammalatosi seriamente, morì nell’infermeria del convento di
Bergamo. Pochi mesi dopo le sue spoglie mortali furono trasferite solennemente
a Berzo, lo circondava già una vasta fama di santità. Il 12 novembre 1961 san
Giovanni XXIII lo proclamò beato e patrono dei bambini, protagonisti dei due
miracoli del processo di beatificazione.
I suoi scritti (poche
lettere, frammenti di diario, appunti per prediche), raccolti in un migliaio di
pagine, svelano il disarmante segreto della sua santità: l’incondizionato
abbandono nella braccia del Padre. “Gesù è da tutti offeso nel mondo: tocca a
me non lasciarlo solo nell’afflizione. L’amore di Dio non consiste in grandi sentimenti,
ma in una grande nudità e pazienza per l’amato Dio. Non c’è altro mezzo
migliore per custodire lo spirito che patire, fare e tacere. Avrò gran
desiderio d’esser soggetto a tutti e in orrore l’essere preferito al minimo”.
Un sentiero che porta al
convento dell’Annunziata, da lui molte volte percorso per raggiungere varie
località della Valcamonica, dove era ricercato confessore e predicatore, è oggi
a lui intitolato. Dalla sua cella, meta di continui pellegrinaggi, una
piccola finestra permette di contemplare l’incantevole paesaggio della bassa
valle, il Lago d’Iseo e il paese natio Berzo.
L'Ordine dei Frati Minori
Cappuccini ne fa memoria al 28 settembre, mentre nel santuario della Santissima
Annunciata, convento in cui il Beato è vissuto, la festa è la domenica dopo il
Perdon d'Assisi (dopo 2 agosto).
PREGHIERA
Ti ringraziamo, o Padre
Santo,
che nel Beato Innocenzo
da Berzo
hai donato a questo
nostro tempo tanto lontano da te
e tanto di te
bisognoso,
un esemplare di preghiera
silenziosa e contemplativa
e un vero innamorato di
Te e dell’Eucaristia.
Ti ringraziamo, o Padre
Misericordioso,
che nel Beato Innocenzo
da Berzo
hai concesso alla tua
Chiesa un ministro buono
e un fedele dispensatore
del tuo perdono
e della tua grazia, per
la pace e la salvezza di molti.
Ti ringraziamo, o Padre
Buono,
che nel Beato Innocenzo
da Berzo povero e penitente,
hai offerto ai bisognosi,
ai disoccupati, ai piccoli
e ai sofferenti un amico
e un benefattore,
e per la loro gioia lo
hai glorificato con il dono dei miracoli.
Ascolta ora le nostre
invocazioni e per la sua intercessione
concedi a noi di imitarne
gli esempi
e di ottenere dalla tua
bontà la grazia che con fiducia ti chiediamo.
Amen
Autore: Daniele
Bolognini
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/72400
Cella del Beato Innocenzo presso il Santuario dell'Annunciata di Piancogno
Innocenzo da Berzo
(1844-1890)
1844,19 marzo: Giovanni
Scalvinoni (Innocenzo) nasce a Niardo in Valcamonica (Brescia)
1856-1861: studia a
Lovere (Bergamo) nel collegio municipale poi entra in seminario a Brescia
1867. Il 2 giugno: viene
ordinato sacerdote.
1867-1869: vicario
coadiutore a Cevo in Valsaviore. Poi vice-rettore del seminario diocesano di
Brescia e dopo un anno viene rimosso. Allora va a Berzo (Valcamonica, Brescia)
come vice-parroco
1874, 16 aprile: inizia
il noviziato al convento dell'Annun-ciata (Cogno-Valcamonica, BS)
1875, 29 aprile: emette
la professione di voti semplici e vien destinato al convento di Albino.
1876: ritorna
all'Annunciata
1878, 2 maggio: emette la
professione solenne ed è vice-maestro dei novizi.
1879: la sede di
noviziato viene spostata a Lovere. Lui invece rimane all'Annunciata
1880, ottobre: va a
Milano-Monforte nel gruppo redazionale della rivista Annali Francescani
1881, febbraio: va per
supplenza ai Sabbioni di Crema
1881, giugno ritorna
all'Annunciata.
1889, autunno: viene
incaricato di predicare gli esercizi spirituali nei conventi più importanti,
Milano, Albino, Bergamo e Brescia
1890, 3 marzo: ad Albino
si ammala gravemente e muore nell'infermeria di Bergamo.
1890, 29 settembre: dal
cimitero di Bergamo le sue spoglie vengono trasferite solennemente a Berzo
1961, 12 novembre:
Giovanni XXIII lo dichiara "beato".
Gesù è da tutti offeso
nel mondo: tocca a me non lasciarlo solo nell'afflizione. L'amore di dio non
consiste in grandi sentimenti, ma in una grande nudità e pazienza per l'amato
Dio. Non c'è altro mezzo migliore per custodire lo spirito che patire, fare e
tacere. Avrò gran desiderio d'esser soggetto a tutti e in orrore l'essere
preferito al minimo. Son trattato anche troppo bene: Meriterei di peggio io,
che ho così tanti debiti con il Signore. (b. Innocenzo da Berzo)
Nella liturgia viene
ricordato il 28 settembre
"L'AMOROSO
NULLA"
Don Giovanni Scalvinoni
aveva solo tre anni di sacerdozio quando venne destinato a Berzo come
vice-parroco. Era stato ordinato il 2 giugno 1867 a Brescia dal vescovo
Girolamo Verzeri, che lo aveva subito mandato a Cevo in Valsaviore a svolgere
l'ufficio di vicario coadiutore, ma dopo due anni il vescovo l'aveva richiamato
a Brescia e nominato vice-rettore del seminario diocesano. Uffici di autorità
responsabile e direttiva erano per lui una sofferenza, tanto che dopo solo un
anno venne rimosso perché - leggiamo nei processi - "quanto ad esercizio
di autorità era men che nulla". Ma era insuperabile quando si trattava di
aiutare un povero o di restare in adorazione davanti al tabernacolo o di
leggere e studiare. Infatti la mamma, Francesca Poli, che l'aveva dato alla
luce 26 anni prima a Niardo in Valcamonica il giorno di san Giuseppe del 1844,
conoscendolo bene e abitando con lui, doveva stare attenta perché tutto poteva
scomparire da casa: bastava arrivasse un povero e ogni cosa utile andava a
finire in quelle mani, anche un pollo in pentola già pronto per la cena,
"tanto noi possiamo mangiare anche domani", diceva con disarmante
calma il figlio, perché "bisogna considerare il nostro prossimo come
coricato nel grembo del Salvatore". Se non era in chiesa a confessare o a
svolgere direzione spirituale o altri ministeri, inappuntabilmente era in
preghiera silenziosa vicino all'altare e "diversivo alle lunghe adorazioni
era l'entrare in sacrestia a leggervi un articolo della Somma di san
Tommaso".
Ma qualcosa lentamente
lasciava trasparire dal suo comportamento, come se la sua aspirazione fosse
altrove, più in alto. In effetti dall'altra parte della valle, adagiato sulla
costa degradante dei monti, svettava il campanile e la sagoma del
convento-eremo dell'Annunziata, fondato nel '400 dal beato Amedeo Menez de
Silva e abitato da poco più di 30 anni dai cappuccini. Là sospirava il suo
cuore per trovarvi l'appagamento della sua sete di interiorità e di silenzio
mistico. Aveva lasciato scritto nelle sue carte: "La maggior necessità che
noi abbiamo è il tacere davanti a questo nostro gran Dio, così con l'appetito
come con la lingua, la cui loquela -quella che egli ascolta più volentieri - è
loquela taciturna d'amore".
Questa aspirazione era il
risultato di una forte esperienza cristiana cresciuta in una umile famiglia di
contadini tra Niardo e Berzo, dove la sofferenza di dolorose separazioni (il
padre Pietro Scalvinoni e la nonna morirono quando Giovannino era ancora
piccolo), accompagnata da quei sentimenti profondi vissuti con la riservatezza,
il pudore e la nobiltà dei poveri, era condivisa nel ritmo di preghiere e di
devozioni apprese da una tradizione di fede concreta e forte come le montagne
che circondavano il suo paese natio.
Lo zio Francesco, che gli
aveva fatto da padre, lo fece studiare a Lovere nel collegio municipale per
cinque anni di ginnasio, fino al 1861 e qui, con maestri di grande spirito,
precisò l'orientamento spirituale della sua personalità fatta di vivace
intelligenza (ha i massimi voti), diligente applicazione al lavoro, premurosa
attenzione verso i più deboli, desiderio di servire e di scomparire e una
passione sfrenata per l'Eucarestia. Invece di continuare gli studi, che gli
erano stati offerti anche gratuitamente dai superiori del collegio, egli aveva
voluto entrare in seminario a Brescia, imponendosi una severa disciplina
spirituale, vergata nei suoi numerosi "regolamenti spirituali", che
egli chiamava "Orari" per trasfigurare tutto in preghiera e vita
interiore. Così era diventato sacerdote, ma continuava a ridefinire i suoi
"orari", in un'ansia di formidabile interiorità, che troverà il suo
appagamento soltanto quando il giorno 16 aprile 1874 don Giovanni, trentenne,
con il consenso della mamma e del suo vescovo, salirà al convento dell'Annunciata
e inizierà l'anno di noviziato cappuccino col nuovo nome di fra Innocenzo da
Berzo. La sua biografia cappuccina è di una sconcertante semplicità. Dopo la
prima professione del 29 aprile 1875 è destinato al convento di Albino. Vi
rimane solo un anno e poi ritorna all'Annunciata dove emette la professione
solenne il 2 maggio 1878 e viene nominato vicemaestro dei novizi. L'incarico
dura poco. Trasferito il noviziato a Lovere nel novembre 1879, egli è lasciato
senza nessun incarico all'Annunziata.
Il dottissimo ministro
provinciale, amico di Rosmini, p. Agostino da Crema, lo chiama a Milano in
ottobre 1880 a far parte del gruppo redazionale della nota rivista Annali
Francescani. Pochi mesi dopo, in febbraio 1881, è mandato per supplenza al
convento dei Sabbioni di Crema e a giugno ritorna alla sua solitudine
dell'Annunziata. Superiori e confratelli si dovettero lasciar convincere dai
ripetuti insuccessi ad abbandonarlo al suo isolamento e a rispettarne il
segreto; alcuni ebbero l'impressione che soffrisse di un complesso di
inferiorità e ne provarono devota commiserazione. In realtà egli non fece
nessun sforzo per evadere dal sentimento della propria incapacità, anzi vi
s'ingolfava sempre piú. L'unico slancio esteriore in cui perseverò fu quello di
dare quanto gli capitava sottomano ai poveri, quelli veramente indigenti e
quelli che ne sfruttavano l'ingenua bontà. Spesso tornava sereno e soddisfatto
dalla questua con la bisaccia vuota, perché nel giro di raccolta aveva resa
concreta e reale l'immagine di fra Galdino, del mare, cioè, che riceve acqua da
tutte le parti e la torna a distribuire a tutti i fiumi.
I superiori alla fine,
nell'autunno del 1889, gli affidarono la predicazione degli esercizi spirituali
nei principali conventi: a Milano-Monforte, ad Albino, a Bergamo, a Brescia.
Riuscirà a terminare solo i primi due, che gli costeranno uno sforzo tale da
sconvolgergli l'animo e da compromettergli seriamente la salute già minata,
affrettandone la fine, Infatti, mentre predica ad Albino si ammala gravemente e
il 3 marzo 1890 spira all'infermeria di Bergamo. Questa altalena di promozioni
e di rimozioni è come un'antitesi che imprime alla biografia esteriore del
beato Innocenzo da Berzo e al suo segreto interiore l'attrazione del mistero e
il ritmo di un dramma sacro.
Padre Innocenzo voleva
solo servire e stare all'ultimo posto: "si era persino fatto curvo nella
persona, si ritirava in un angolo quasi desiderasse scomparire". Nel suo
quaderno scriveva: "Avrò gran desiderio d'essere soggetto a tutti e in
orrore l'esser preferito al minimo. Son trattato anche troppo bene. Meriterei
ben altro io, che ho così tanti debiti con il Signore". Questo
atteggiamento gli causava molte umiliazioni. I frati non andavano troppo per il
sottile e spesso lo strapazzavano, soprattutto per le sue interminabili messe
che superavano il solito orario e anche gli strattoni alla pianeta per
avvertirlo servivano a poco. Egli era come inghiottito dallo Spirito Santo e le
sue giaculatorie e i suoi silenzi meditativi duravano a lungo. La sua sete
d'espiazione gli faceva inventare mille maniere per soffrire e umiliarsi ed
aveva sempre preparata la sua risposta serena, anche faceta, pronto a ridere
della propria imperizia. I sacerdoti della Valle Camonica ricorrevano a lui per
consiglio ed egli sapeva risolvere con precisione di dottrina e intuizione
profonda ogni caso intricato. Ma la sua "astuzia" lo faceva apparire
un inetto. Un desiderio immenso di purificazione e di preghiera era un suo
tentativo di rispondere all'Amore che non è amato, e un crudele tormento che si
riflette anche nei suoi tratti somatici lo accompagna: il male del peccato.
Chiede al teologo ufficiale della provincia "se il peccato veniale può
recare a Dio una offesa infinita" e trema al solo pensiero di poter
commettere il minimo difetto.
Il suo punto d'attrazione
è il tabernacolo. Qui, davanti all'Eucarestia, trova ogni suo bene. Le
preghiere della comunità non gli bastavano. Le giornate non erano sufficienti.
Incaricato di spolverare i banchi, non finiva mai e spolverava e rispolverava.
Quando gli altri finivano, egli continuava. Gli avevano imposto di uscire di
chiesa come gli altri. Egli obbediva, ma come una colomba gemebonda girava
rasente il perimetro delle mura e se la porta era socchiusa si fermava
estatico. Scoperto un usciolo che dalla biblioteca del convento dava sulla
chiesa, da quel momento era sempre in biblioteca a studiare. Ma i libri
restavano aperti. Egli era assorbito nelle misteriose intimità eucaristiche.
Ormai era un'attrazione irresistibile e, anche a livello fisico, non poteva più
vivere lontano dal tabernacolo. E passando le notti nel silenzio adorante, come
fece una volta nella chiesa di Ossimo, dove era stato a confessare, il suo
volto diventava bello, disteso e radioso. Così l'aveva ritrovato il parroco al
mattino, quando venne ad aprire la porta della chiesa.
Con l'Eucarestia la
croce, il Crocefisso. Lo meditava continuamente e moltiplicava fino a otto e
dieci volte al giorno l'esercizio della Via Crucis, piangendo e gemendo. Ne era
diventato apostolo. "Quando si vedeva qualcuno occupato in fare la Via
Crucis - depose un teste - i frati dicevano che si era confessato da P.
Innocenzo".
Scrive Ilarino da Milano:
"Anche se il suo temperamento era quello accentuato di un timido e la sua
tendenza volontaristica lo trascinava alla remissività, alla sottomissione, a
tirarsi sempre in disparte e a rimanere in un angolo, tanto più colpisce, come
un paradosso, il fatto che l'azione divina trasformante non solo non elimini
questa inclinazione psicologica alla piccolezza e questa convinzione di
parvità, ma se ne serva magnificamente per trasformarle in esercizio di virtù
eroiche e in uno stato mistico".
Giovanni XXIII, che lo
proclamò beato il 12 novembre 1961 lo definì: "Un santo moderno, un santo
per il nostro tempo". Ma qual è il segreto della sua vita semplicissima?
Questa "modernità" di santità è difficile a spiegare. Innocenzo,
secondo le parole di Paolo VI, "dicono i biografi che teneva la testa
bassa e difficilmente si poteva perfin vedere il suo sguardo. Ma se guardiamo
la realtà di quest'anima, dobbiamo dire che teneva gli occhi in alto, perché
davvero la sua gravitazione - per noi è la terra, per lui era, piuttosto che
gravitazione, levitazione - era il cielo". Egli è un santo che sfugge, che
si nasconde, tormentato dall'ansia dell'introversione mistica, che si
costruisce togliendo, scartando, distruggendo e così scopre un vuoto sempre più
assoluto, sempre più voluto e ricercato, un "amoroso nulla", come la
scrittrice Curzia Ferrari intitola la sua splendida rilettura biografica del
beato, per una pienezza di amore divino. Tolto tutto, può dire in verità, come
san Francesco: "Mio Dio e mio tutto!". È questo il segreto profondo
del "Fratino di Berzo", come già aveva intuito la gente semplice
della valle, chiamandolo appunto così.
CIMP Cap - Conferenza
Italiana Ministri Provinciali Cappuccini
Piazzale San Lorenzo, 3 -
00185 Roma
C.F. 92034310588
SOURCE : http://www.fraticappuccini.it/new_site/index.php/beati/150-beato-innocenzo-da-berzo-1844-1890.html
Voir aussi : http://www.abbaye-saint-benoit.ch/hagiographie/fiches/f0137.htm
http://www.capuchin.org/about/history/saints/detail/1ab
http://www.preghiereagesuemaria.it/bambini/beato%20innocenzo%20da%20berzo%20x%20i%20bambini.htm
http://www.preghiereagesuemaria.it/beato%20innocenzo%20da%20berzo.htm
