Saint Ignatius of Santhià

He was born on June 5, 1686, at Santhià, near Vercelli, and baptized Lorenzo Maurizio. ¹² The Holy See's Italian biography says he was the fourth of six children of a well-off family, Pier Paolo Belvisotti and Maria Elisabetta Balocco. ² His father died when he was seven, and his mother put his education in the hands of a devout and learned priest of the family, Don Bartolomeo Quallio. ²

Feeling called to the priesthood, he went to Vercelli in 1706 for philosophy and theology, and was ordained in the autumn of 1710. ¹² He stayed in Vercelli as chaplain and tutor to the noble Avogadro family and joined the Jesuits in preaching missions to the people, which is how he met his spiritual director, the Jesuit Father Cacciamala. ²

Preferment followed. Santhià elected him canon rector of its collegiate church, and the Avogadro named him parish priest of Casanova Elvo, a parish in their gift. ² At nearly thirty, the Italian biography says, he turned down both, with their incomes, and on May 24, 1716, entered the Capuchin novitiate at Chieri, near Turin, taking the name Ignatius of Santhià and hoping to go to the foreign missions. ² The English biography says his family and his parish criticized him for it and did not understand, and dates his religious profession to May 24, 1717. ¹

From the day of his profession, the English biography says, he was "like putty in the hands of his superiors," sent from one friary to another and happy to go. ¹ His years of Capuchin formation, by the Italian account, were spent at Saluzzo, Chieri and the Monte dei Cappuccini in Turin. ² Paul VI, beatifying him in 1966, said that if he had to name his outstanding virtue it would be obedience, translated here, "the virtue most in crisis today." ⁴

Paul VI also said that people looking for marvels in his life would be disappointed. ⁴ Apart from some moments of ecstasy and levitation that remained almost secret, the pope said, his life offered no adventures; his claim to perfection was, translated here, "not singularity but normality. He was a true Franciscan, a true Capuchin." ⁴ Someone had called him a friar who did everything, and Paul VI thought that was right. ⁴

At the provincial chapter of August 31, 1731, he was made master of novices at the friary of Mondovì, and the English biography adds that he was vicar of the house. ¹² He held the post for thirteen years by the Italian biography's count and fourteen by the English. ¹² In that time, the Italian biography says, he gave the Capuchin province of Piedmont 121 new friars, some of whom died with a reputation for holiness. ²

His teaching, the English biography says, rested on two things: loving the novices with a divine love and teaching them by example more than by words. ¹ He was available at any hour of the day or night, and knew each one of them. ¹

It ended with an offering. The Italian biography tells how he learned that one of his former novices, Father Bernardino Ignazio dalla Vezza, a missionary in the Congo, was so ill that his mission was in danger. ² He knelt before the Blessed Sacrament and prayed, in words translated here: "My Lord Jesus Christ, if it pleases you that the illness of this good worker should pass to me, who am good for nothing, do it. I accept it willingly for your glory." ² The missionary went back to work, the biography says, and Ignatius's own sufferings began, forcing him to give up the novitiate. ² The English biography describes the illness as a mysterious disease of the eyes, in 1744, that left him nearly blind and was partly cured. ¹

War came to Piedmont, and King Charles Emmanuel III asked the Capuchins to care for the wounded and the sick. ¹² Ignatius went as chief chaplain to the army, which the Italian biography says was fighting the French and Spanish armies in 1745 and 1746; the English biography dates the war from 1743 to 1746. ¹² For two years he served the hospitals of Asti, Alessandria and Vinovo, where an epidemic followed the fighting. ¹²

The Italian biography quotes a witness, translated here: he ran "from ward to ward, from bed to bed, driven by love, continually attentive, diligent and tireless in caring for the sick soldiers." ²

After the war he went back to the Monte dei Cappuccini, the friary on the hill above Turin, where the Italian biography says he spent the last part of his life, from 1747 to 1770. ² He preached, heard confessions and, old and ill as he was, went down the hill into the city to visit the poor and the sick in their homes; the English biography adds that he begged money and food for the needy. ¹² It says he became known as the "father of sinners and the lost," for his particular gift with the "spiritually sick." ¹ The people, the Italian biography says, called him the saint of the Monte, and his penitents included the royal family, the archbishop of Turin, Giovanni Battista Roero, the court bishop, Cardinal Vittorio delle Lanze, the grand chancellor and the mayor of the city. ²

He loved silence and long vigils before the tabernacle, and he did the humblest jobs of the friary until a few years before his death. ² He would often say, in the Holy See's English, "Paradise is not made for slackers. Let's get to work!" ¹² John Paul II said he "lived uniquely the mission of forgiving sins and of guiding men and women on the paths of evangelical perfection." ³

He spent his last two years in the friary infirmary, still blessing, hearing confessions and giving advice to those who came. ² He died in his cell, at eighty-four, on September 22, 1770, by the Italian biography, the feast of Saint Maurice, his own patron and patron of the Capuchin province of Piedmont; the English biography gives September 21. ¹² So many people came to see his body that the superior held the funeral early, for fear of the crowd. ²

His cause opened at once, the Italian biography says, and the apostolic process was introduced in 1782, but the French Revolution and the suppressions of religious orders in the nineteenth century kept interrupting it. ² Leo XII recognized his heroic virtue on March 19, 1827, and then came more than a century of near silence. ² Paul VI beatified him on April 17, 1966. ¹²⁴

John Paul II canonized him on Pentecost Sunday, May 19, 2002, with Alonso de Orozco, Umile of Bisignano, Pauline of the Suffering Heart of Jesus and Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello. ³ He said Ignatius "continues to remind everyone of the values of poverty, simplicity and authentic Christian life." ³

No source used for this page names him the patron of anything. ¹²³ The Holy See remembers him as a confessor and spiritual guide, and the Roman Martyrology for his care of penitents and of the sick. ³⁵

Saint Ignatius of Santhià's feast is September 22. ⁵ The Roman Martyrology, as the Italian bishops print it, enters him that day at Turin, as a priest of the Capuchin Friars Minor assiduous in hearing penitents and in caring for the sick. ⁵ It is the day of his death by the Italian biography; the English biography puts his death a day earlier. ¹²

At thirty he had a canonry, a parish and a patron family, and gave all three up to become a friar who would be sent wherever he was told. ¹² The pope who beatified him said that obedience was the key to him, and that nothing else in his life was remarkable. ⁴

The Italian biography tells of a man who asked to take a younger friar's illness on himself, and nearly went blind. ¹² It does not say whether the prayer caused the illness, only that one came and the other went.

He spent the second half of his life in a confessional, and in the streets below the friary looking for the sick. ¹² What the sources keep returning to is that he was available, to novices at any hour, and to sinners for more than twenty years. ¹²³