Every May 23, the Church celebrates Saint John Baptist Rossi (1698, Genoa – 1764, Rome), Italian priest who dedicated his life to bringing God’s forgiveness and mercy to all people, especially those most in need of mercy. of God. This is how John the Baptist understood his priestly ministry, making use, in a particular way, of the sacrament of reconciliation.
A new life: Go for heaven!
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Father Rossi strove to be a good confessor: warm, kind and precise in spiritual advice – virtues impossible to achieve if one is not docile to grace. In the confessional, the one who confesses and absolves, as well as the one who approaches in search of forgiveness, both are objects of the love of God who hopes that we will be better people, holier, and that we will reach heaven.
Saint John Baptist Rossi acquired a special sensitivity to recognize how much a soul that has separated from God suffers, how much damage it does to itself and how much damage it does to others due to the impact of sin, in such a way that he forced himself to listen diligently. to each person who knelt at his side. John the Baptist did not want to fail Jesus. Administering God’s love and forgiveness are tasks that surpass our nature without a doubt, but that God has desired to share so that none of his children are lost.
Sharing the joy of knowing oneself forgiven
The saint once stated: “Before I wondered what the path would be to reach heaven and save many souls. And I have discovered that the help I can give to those who want to be saved is to confess them. It is incredible the great good that can be done in confession.”
Father Rossi went in search of sinners to bring them the joy that he himself experienced when he saw himself forgiven, reconciled, ‘born again’. That is why he wanted to always be available to confess to whoever needed it: the sick, prisoners – whom he visited in prison – and the dying; and all those who sought to leave behind a life of sin.
Embodying the ideals of the priesthood made Father Juan Bautista attract many people of all kinds and from many places, who used to stand in long lines to confess to him.
God teaches us with kindness
Juan Bautista Rossi was born in 1698, in a town near Genoa, Italy. At the age of 13 he moved to Rome, to the house of a priest cousin, canon of Saint Mary in Cosmedin. His desire was to study at the famous Roman College, an institution founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in 1550. In 1714, at the age of 16, he began his ecclesiastical studies, which he later concluded with the Dominicans, graduating in Theology. He was ordained a priest at the age of 23, on March 8, 1721.
Even before being ordained, John the Baptist had developed an intense apostolate. The years of formation had also been years of pastoral activity and, naturally, there were gratifying moments, but also others, the most difficult, those that bring mortification and even sadness.
In the first years of priesthood – full of learning – John the Baptist discovered the importance of giving up certain things in the order of comforts and pleasures – good food, drink or rest. Sometimes, out of excessive fervor, he incurred certain penitential practices that damaged his health. That, perhaps, was his greatest lesson: he learned that right mortification is what is exercised by accepting the sufferings and work of each day; with a combative spirit perhaps, but considering one’s real possibilities and thinking about freeing oneself from certain things that prevent one from loving more, not to become or feel “invincible.”
Total detachment from material goods
Pope Benedict XIV commissioned John the Baptist to take care of a shelter for the homeless. The saint served the poor and needy in that area for many years. And, concerned about the spiritual well-being of those he welcomed, he combined attentive service with the teaching of the Word of God and the catechism, so that the life of the hostel always revolved around the life of grace, the sacraments and the God’s Love.
On May 23, 1764, Father Juan Bautista suffered a heart attack at the age of 66. He died as he lived, being a poor among the poor. There was not even enough money to pay for his coffin and grave, so many charitable people gave money for him to be buried in a Christian way. His funeral was a kind of great event: 260 priests, an archbishop, and many religious attended; all accompanied by a multitude of grateful souls.
He was canonized by Pope Leo XIII on December 8, 1881.
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