Spirituality of St. Anthony Zaccaria
March 30, 2010
March 16, 2010
Meditating with St. Anthony Mary on the meaning of Cross...
"Religious life is a cross to be carried a step at a time and in a steady fashion, "for your sake we face death all day long,"[1] as the Apostles used to say;[2] and the Lord told us to take up our cross daily.[3] Are you disciples of Christ? Then, carry your cross, mortify your bodies with fasting and toiling, watch in prayer, spend your time helping your neighbor, nail yourselves to holy obedience never withdrawing from it. So, for Christ's sake, do not make any more idols." (Sermon 1)
"He will grant you, in particular, a continuous spirit of self-abandonment on the ignominious cross, and lead you to a life conformed to Christ’s according to the pattern of the great saints. Consequently, you will be able to say with your Father, “be imitators of us as we are of Christ.”[1] (Letter V)
[1]1 Cor 4:16; 11:1
March 9, 2010
Un Uomo Di Dio Sant'Antonio Maria Zaccaria - 1502-1539
March 4, 2010
From the Introduction to Dilectus Domini nostri, Bull of Canonization of St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria by His Excellency Bishop Sergio Pagano, CRSP
From the Introduction to Dilectus Domini nostri,
Bull of Canonization of St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria
(....)
The canonization of the Founder of the Barnabites occurred many years following his death (1539). His canonization also followed experiences of various vicissitudes related to the events of history that pertained to the Congregation between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. (...)
The ordinary process began in 1802. However, the first stage had already taken place in October 1800 during the provincial chapter of Lombardy. The Barnabite who must be acknowledged as the prime animator behind the future canonization of Anthony Mary Zaccaria was Reverend Father Francesco Fontana (1750–1822). (...)
Without going into all the merits of the long procedural process, we shall only say that the many efforts of the Barnabites were in the end rewarded. The figure of their Founder was enriched both by the precious circles of contemporary and latter witnesses. This outcome led His Holiness Leo XIII to beatify Anthony Mary Zaccaria on January 3, 1890, given that the Congregation of Rites had already approved three miracles that were attributed to this future saint. This opened the way to canonization as requested by Father Granniello, who adduced an abundance of canonical arguments.
During the Consistory of May 20, 1897, His Holiness Leo XIII decreed the canonization of Anthony Mary Zaccaria. On May 27, 1897, the pope issued the Bull of Canonization Dilectus Domini nostri. In truth, this Bull had been signed by the pontiff and twenty-three cardinals several days prior to the actual issuance of the Bull. (...)
On May 27, 1897, St. Peter’s Basilica housed this great ceremony: under the rays of Bernini were the portraits of two future saints, Anthony Mary Zaccaria and Peter Fourier. The basilica was illuminated by 950 chandeliers, and was filled with faithful. In solemnity, His Holiness Leo XIII pronounced the formal act of canonization and, indeed, the Bull bears the very date of the ceremony. The Barnabites in Italy, particularly those in Cremona where Zaccaria was born, and the entire Church could now begin to venerate our Founder as a saint – we could even say, a great saint – who, on the example of the Apostle Paul, dedicated himself tirelessly to the Church until his death at a young age, leaving a fertile legacy.
Vatican City
September 5, 2008
The Foreword to the Novena to St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria by His Excellency Bishop Andrea Erba, Barnabite
In the first half of the fifteenth century in Italy shone the luminous figure of Anthony Mary Zaccaria. This young saint, full of passion for God’s love, was a great reformer of religious customs of the clergy and the Christian people. Above all, he was the founder of the Clerics Regular of St. Paul (Barnabites), the Angelic Sisters of St. Paul, and the Laity of St. Paul.
Anthony Mary Zaccaria, born in Cremona, Italy in 1502, was a student and graduate in medicine from the University of Padua; a doctor of body and soul in his native city; a fervent catechist and a zealous priest in Milan and elsewhere. For a decade his apostolate was characterized by an intense devotion to the Most Blessed Sacrament of the altar (he was the promoter of the Forty Hours Devotion), and by a passionate love of the cross and the crucified Christ (he instituted the ringing of bells on Friday afternoon to commemorate Christ’s death). Anthony Mary was guided by an extraordinary zeal of St. Paul, chosen by him to be his master and model on earth, and his special patron in heaven.
Exhausted from his pastoral work, Anthony Mary died at only 36 years old, leaving behind admirable examples of penance and of spirituality. In the novena here presented, his ascetic-mystic thought continuously emerges. This thought can be found in his six Sermons and eleven Letters, which remained as his testament and a mirror of his soul and his missionary call: in these writings resounds an unceasing appeal against vices, and toward holiness.
Cardinal Ratzinger wrote: “I have to say that the image of this saint is dear to me because he is one of the great figures of Catholic reform… an authentic man of God and of the Church, a man burning with zeal, a demanding forger of consciences, a true leader able to convert and lead others to good.”
Like all the saints, Zaccaria is a figure of permanent relevance: an encounter with him symbolizes an invitation to return to a charism of a unique vocation, a return desired by the Second Vatican Council, as an indispensable element of true renewal. The Church venerates the saints and honors their images. Celebrating their names and their memory, she proclaims Christ’s marvels in his servants and proposes to the faithful examples to imitate (Sacrosantum Concilium, 11).
The saints manifest the face and the presence of God in the world. They contribute to the spiritual life of the Church on earth, and form with us one mystical body. As friends and coheirs of Christ, they intercede for us. As our brothers and benefactors, they teach us the way to reach heaven. (Lumen Gentium, 49-50)Anthony Mary Zaccaria merits to be known and followed in his teachings: he counts among the category of priests, who in the course of centuries, have left a splendid example of holiness. As a spiritual master, he continues to spread and proclaim the Word of God and to teach the “sublime wisdom of Jesus Christ” (Liturgy of July 5)
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PHOTO FR. ROBERT KOSEK, CRSP
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