Pietro Bonilli (15 March 1841 - 5 January 1935) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

and the founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Spoleto. Bonilli served as a diocesan priest for his entire life in both

Trevi The area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ) is a collection of justice as well as migration & home affairs policies designed to ensure security, rights and free movement within the European Union (EU). Fields covered include the harmonisati ...

and

Spoleto Spoleto (, also , , ; la, Spoletum) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome. History Spolet ...

while using his order to reach out to orphans and homeless people.

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

beatified Bonilli on 24 April 1988.

Life

Pietro Bonilli was born in

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...

on 15 March 1841 to the farmers Sebastiano Bonilli and Maria Allegri. His mother and the local parish oversaw his initial education due to there being no school close enough for Bonilli to go to; he was a diligent student and successful in mathematical and philosophical studies. Bonilli was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

to the priesthood on 19 December 1863. He was appointed as the parish priest of

and remained in that post until 1897. Bonilli founded his own religious congregation on 13 May 1888 in order to better care for orphans and homeless people while also providing them with a Christian and civic education. He also focused on catering to the needs of the deaf and the blind. Bonilli had four postulants enter and the latter hopefuls received their habit from the

Archbishop of Spoleto The Archdiocese of Spoleto-Norcia ( la, Archidioecesis Spoletana-Nursina) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Italy. Historically, it was the Diocese of Spoleto. Elevated to the status of an archdio ...

Elvezio Pagliari. He also opened an orphanage for children in 1887. He became the canon of the Spoleto Cathedral in 1898. His spiritual guide was the priest Lodovico Pieri - the latter was also the guide of Tommaso Riccardi. The congregation went on to flourish and received the papal decree of praise of

Pope Pius X Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...

on 8 March 1911 while on 10 May 1932 receiving full papal approval from

Pope Pius XI Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City fro ...

. Bonilli died in 1935 after his health started to deteriorate from 1918; he had lost his sight in 1929. His remains were transferred from their previous location on 24 April 1988 due to the earthquake of 26 September 1997. His order now operates in places such as

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

. As of 2005, there were 58 houses and a total of 385 religious.

Beatification

The beatification process commenced in the Archdiocese of Spoleto-Norcia on 4 March 1948, in an informative task assigned with collecting all available evidence on Bonilli's life in the form of either documents or witness testimonies that would attest to his saintliness and potential sanctification. Theologians approved all of his writings on 26 July 1953 as being in line with the tradition of the faith and not in contradiction of it. The title of

Servant of God "Servant of God" is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. Terminology The expression "servant of God" appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in th ...

was bestowed upon Bonilli after the cause opened on 1 July 1964 under

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...

. An apostolic process was initiated not long after and the

Congregation for the Causes of Saints In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, pa ...

validated the previous processes in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

on 16 January 1970. The

Positio In the Catholic Church, a ''positio'' (''Positio super Virtutibus'') is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a person is declared Venerable, the second of the four steps on the path to canonization as a saint. Des ...

was submitted to the C.C.S. in 1984 which resulted in

proclaiming Bonilli to be

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cathol ...

on 30 June 1986 upon the recognition of his life of

heroic virtue Heroic virtue is a phrase coined by Augustine of Hippo to describe the virtue of early Christian martyrs and used by the Catholic Church. The Greek pagan term hero described a person with possibly superhuman abilities and great goodness, and "it ...

. The miracle needed for beatification was investigated in a diocesan process in the place that it occurred in and received the validation of the C.C.S. on 21 June 1985. The medical board assented to the healing as being a miracle on 5 November 1986 and theologians did the same on 13 March 1987; the C.C.S. followed suit on 2 June 1987. The pope granted final approval to it a month later and beatified Bonilli on 24 April 1988. The current

postulator A postulator is the person who guides a cause for beatification or canonization through the judicial processes required by the Roman Catholic Church. The qualifications, role and function of the postulator are spelled out in the ''Norms to be Obse ...

assigned to the cause is Giovangiuseppe Califano.

References

External links

Hagiography CircleSisters of the Holy Family of Spoleto
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonilli, Pietro 1841 births 1935 deaths 19th-century venerated Christians 19th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests 20th-century venerated Christians 20th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests Beatifications by Pope John Paul II Founders of Catholic religious communities Italian beatified people People from Perugia Venerated Catholics by Pope John Paul II