In the audience granted this Thursday 23 May 2024 to Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the Decree attesting to a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Giuseppe Allamano, Founder of the Consolata Missionaries.
By Jaime C. Patias *
At the same time, the Pope decided to convene a Consistory, which will concern the canonization of Allamano, together with Marie-Léonie Paradis, Elena Guerra and Carlo Acutis. The date is not yet known.
The mission: Allamano’s dream
The miracle that will lead to the canonization of Blessed Giuseppe Allamano happened in Brazil, in the state of Roraima, in the middle of the Amazon forest, one of the frontiers of the mission, where the Consolata missionaries are evangelizing, realizing the dream of Allamano, who sent out the Consolata missionaries to the whole world.
“First saints, then missionaries” (TGR Torino video)
Born in Castelnuovo Don Bosco (Italy) on 21 January 1851, Allamano died in Turin (Italy) on 16 February 1926.
As a boy Giuseppe grew up among the Salesians, at 22 he was ordained a priest and cultivated the dream of going on a mission, but his poor health did not allow him to do so. At the age of 29 he was sent to be in-charge of the largest Marian sanctuary in Turin dedicated to Our Lady Consolata which brought it back to the splendors of the past. The fire for the mission, still alive in his heart, Allamano passed on to young priests who, duly trained at their Rector’s school, were preparing to set sail for distant lands.
At the foot of the Consolata, in this way, Allamano laid the foundations for a great work, the Consolata Missionary Institute (IMC), which he founded in 1901 and at the request of Pope Pius X he founded the female arm of the Consolata missionaries, named Consolata Sisters (MC) in 1910.
With his dream realized and after seeing his work firmly consolidated in the missions of Africa, Allamano entered heaven on 15 February 1926. Pope Saint John Paul II beatified him on 9 October 1990.
The Consolata missionaries are currently present in 28 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
The miracle of the indigenous Sorino Yanomami
The miracle attributed to the intercession of Allamano concerns the miraculous healing of the indigenous Sorino Yanomami, a man from the Amazon forest in the State of Roraima, northern Brazil, who on 7 February 1996 was attacked by a jaguar causing the fracture and the consequent opening of his cranial box. Sorino remained in critical condition for eight hours without adequate treatment, until a small twin-engine plane managed to transport him to the hospital in Boa Vista, the state capital.
The scene was very terrifying for the doctors, Sorino was operated on urgently and then admitted to intensive care. Next to him, together with his wife, there are six Consolata missionary sisters, a priest and a Consolata missionary brother. Everyone invoked the Blessed Allamano and placed his relic under the pillow of Sorino’s bed. Precisely on that day the novena of the Blessed began and the nuns prayed to ask the Blessed Founder for the healing of Sorino who woke up ten days after the operation without showing any neurological consequences. On March 4th he was transferred to a nursing home and on May 8th he was able to return to his village completely healed, resuming his life as a forest dweller and to date there are no consequences of the serious injuries suffered 28 years earlier .
Message from the IMC-MC Superiors General
Immediately after the news, the Superior General of the Consolata Missionaries (IMC), Father James Lengarin, and the Superior General of the Consolata Sisters (MCs), Mother Lucia Bortolomasi, sent a message to all the missionaries, men and women, lay people and all groups of friends of the Consolata Family, communicating with joy that “the long-awaited day has arrived, which our hearts have been waiting for for a long time: FOUNDING FATHER WILL BE CANONIZED BY POPE FRANCIS!”
The message read in part, “The process for the recognition of the miracle in favor of Sorino Yanomami is now concluded: all that is missing is the communication of the date of this very bright event for our Consolata Family!”. “The Blessed Giuseppe Allamano, our Founding Father, – continues the message – He who gave us the Consolata spirit, has always been a light for us. At the end of his life he wrote with conviction: “It consoles me that I always tried to do the will of God” (Letter to to the missionaries, 1 October 1923).
Here is his path to holiness! And to us, his sons and daughters, he indicates that the first aim of our Institutes is the sanctification of its members, a sanctity that extends to embrace and illuminate the path of lay people too. The Founder’s insistence for us, his sons and daughters, has become a lifestyle: “first saints and then missionaries”.
“Now even the universal Church recognizes him as a saint, this light spreads to all places, and increasingly becomes a beacon for us on the paths of mission. We thank the Lord for this gift for us and for the Church! May this blessed time be an opportunity to feel him more and more as a FATHER and enjoy his living presence among us”, concludes the signed Message of the two Superiors Generals.
See the video produced by the Colombia Region Communication Office
Message from the Archbishop of Turin
“Diocese celebrating together with the Consolata Missionaries”. It is the spirit of the message sent «to the Church that is in Turin and to the city» by the archbishop, Msgr. Roberto Repole, as soon as the news arrived from the Holy See.
«The mission started from the beloved Consolata Sanctuary and today it is spread throughout the world, where the Consolata Missionaries continue to bear witness to their faith in Jesus, often in conditions of great material and spiritual poverty. It is the missionary commitment of the entire Church, including that of Turin which, following the example of Allamano and the “social saints” who enlightened the city in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, feels called to bring the Gospel into the lives of all men and all women, here and today”, states the archbishop.
“In these hours we join the celebration of the Consolata missionaries and we address a grateful thought to the Pope. The path towards the canonization of Giuseppe Allamano has begun, and we will soon have the joy of living together”, concludes Mgr. Roberto Repole.
A “holy coincidence” meant that Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the Decree which certifies a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Giuseppe Allamano, on the very same day, May 23, 2015, in which one of his daughters, Sister Irene Stefani, was proclaimed blessed together with Archbishop Oscar Romero, icons of “holiness” in the mission of consolation, justice and peace.
* Father Jaime C. Patias, IMC, General Communication.
