Today, on 18th December, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the Decree on the heroicity of the virtues of Redemptorist Fr. Joseph Mary Leone, a professed priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.
By virtue of this Decree, Fr. Joseph Mary Leo
is declared VENERABLE
Giuseppe Maria Leone was born in Trinitapolí (province of Barletta), May 23, 1829, the fifth of six children of Nicola and Rosa De Bíase. In 1942, he entered the diocesan seminary of Trani, where, until 1849, he completed his literary and philosophical studies, forming himself spiritually by reading the works of St. Alphonsus de Liguori. In October of the same year, against his father’s tenacious opposition, he was accepted into the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, beginning his novitiate in Ciorani on March 11, 1850, and professing vows on March 29 of the following year. Having completed his theological studies in Vallo della Lucania, he was ordained a priest in Amalfi on December 31, 1854.
Assigned to the community of Vallo della Lucania, he devoted himself to missionary preaching in Cilento and Basilicata until 1865, when, following the application of the subversive laws by which religious institutes in southern Italy were suppressed, he, like all Redemptorists of the Neapolitan Province, was forced to leave the religious community and return to Trinitapoli.
In his hometown, in addition to working as rector of the Church of St. Joseph and spiritual director of the confraternity of the same name, he continued to generously engage in preaching in other cities of Apulia and in the ministry of confessor and spiritual guide, always maintaining intense relations with the superiors of the Congregation and the other confreres.
During the cholera epidemic that struck Trinitapoli in 1867 that caused numerous deaths, among them his father and sister Concetta, the Servant of God, despite his poor health did his utmost with heroic charity toward his fellow citizens.
Returning to the Congregation in 1880 and assigned to the Angri house, he remained there until his death on August 9, 1902.
Constantly afflicted by serious infirmities, such as hemoptysis and paralysis of the spine, he was able to put the many charisms with which he was endowed at the service of his neighbour, especially the clergy and religious. To him they turned for direction and advice Sr. Maria Pia Notari, foundress of the Crucified Sisters, Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament; St. Catherine Volpicelli, foundress of the Handmaids of the S. Heart; Blessed Maria Maddalena Starace, foundress of the Compassionists; Blessed Alfonso Fusco, foundress of the Battistine Sisters; and finally Blessed Bartolo Longo who, with his wife Marianna Farnarano De Fusco, had him as moderator and guide in the construction of the shrine of Pompeii and the attached social works. With the Blessed, he directed the Daughters of the Rosary, for whom he dictated the Rule. Finally, he became the herald and champion of the proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption, encouraging and spurring Bartolo Longo to foment this initiative. He published sixteen ascetical works, others remained unpublished; including a copious epistolary, recently published.
His body, transferred from the Angri cemetery to the First Redemptorist Church of Pagani (Congrega), was later buried in the crypt of the shrine in Pompeii next to the mortal remains of Fr. Bartolo Longo. Today he rests in Trinitapoli, where he was buried in the church of St. Stephen Protomartyr on Jan. 5, 1984.
Fr. Antonio Marrazzo, CSsR.
