Antonio Maria Gianelli

thumb|SStatue of Saint Antonio Maria Gianelli in Cerreta Antonio Maria Gianelli (12 April 1789 – 7 June 1846) was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate who served as the Bishop of Bobbio from 1837 until his death. He was also the founder of the Figlie di Nostra Signora del Giardino and the Missionaries of Saint Alphonsus. Gianelli was dedicated to the educational needs of his people and catered to their spiritual and material needs as well; he was on hand to aid the ill and the poor and made evangelization a focus to his episcopal mission. He likewise preached missions and became known for his charisma and his eloquence. Quotes Paradise is open to all, but only those who make efforts to reach it enter it. It's open to everyone, but it's not for anyone who really wants it. Quoted in Simone Giusti, Narrare la fede ai figli con il vangelo di Matteo, Paoline, Milano, 2007, p. 57. ISBN 978-88-315-3305-8. Vita di San Colombano abbate Antonio Maria Gianelli, Vita di San Colombano abbate irlandese protettore della città e diocesi di Bobbio e dell'insigne borgo di S. Colombano nella diocesi di Lodi, Stabilimento tipografico Fontana, Torino, 1844. Incpit All the heroes of the Gospel are worthy of devout admiration, and they deserve too much even from the great of the century, of whom with the perfect victory that brought back their passions, they surpassed virtue. But there are those, who seem to deserve it distinctly from the greats and from the princes themselves for the particular relationships they had with the kings of the earth, or for other circumstances that accompanied their lives. Quotes (Saint Columbanus) By all he was well received and favored, though not always by all equally, nor did he ever cease to proclaim to them, as the most comforting, so still the gravest and most terrible truths of the Gospel. And as all who heard him with modesty and docility were glad, so went away sad, indeed lost those who resisted his apostolic exhortations. He did not lack his Herod in Theodoric, nor his Herodias in Brunechilde, who, if they denied him the crown of martyrdom, did not deprive him of that of persecution, which he tolerated with the chests of the Baptists, the Grisostomes and the Tommasis of Cantorbery. (pp. VI-VII) (Saint Columbanus) He was a monk and anchorite, but he knew how to combine the virtues of the cloister with the palms of the apostolate. He did not lack much erudition, and left some uninspiring writings, besides those that were lost. He illustrated with his preaching France, much of Germany and Italy, and perhaps still England and Scotland. He founded a religious order, and not a few monasteries, and left them a rule of extraordinary holiness and perfection. It would not be well known whether the fame of his virtues, or that of his miracles, was greater; but it is undoubted that both in these and in those he was surprising and distinguished. (p. XII) External links Gianelli, Maria Antonio Category:1789 births Category:1846 deaths Category:Catholics from Italy Category:Roman Catholic bishops Category:Catholic saints Category:Religious leaders