Saint Guido Maria Conforti and the Spanish flu (the 1918 flu pandemic).
The Founder of the Xaverian missionaries too knew and faced as a believer, a close and caring brother, father and bishop of the Diocese of Parma, Italy, alongside the horrible world war (1915-1918), the devastating and dramatic reality of the “Spagnola” or “Spanish flu” (the 1918 flu pandemic), also called the "lung plague".[1]
Saint Guido Maria Conforti had the experience of the "Spagnola" (1918-1920) or “Spanish great flu” when he was already bishop of Parma (1908- 1931) for about ten years. In the territory of Parma (Italy)[2] - increasingly involved in the dramatic reality of the First World War (1915-1918) - the hygienic conditions of the population were worsening: diseases had been on the rise for some time, including typhoid, tuberculosis and pellagra ... In the last months of the year 1918, the serious threat of the "Spagnola" ("the lung plague") appeared on the horizon; a virus that first emerged from a military training camp in the United States, and then spread in Europe, starting from the northern coast of Spain (= “Spagnola”). The first news of a contagion in the territory of Parma appeared in the local newspaper La Gazzetta di Parma (August 23, 1918). Since then, however, as in other subsequent issues and in other newspapers - often in marginal articles - the purpose was to deny the seriousness and emergence of the epidemic.
The Xaverian Missionary Institute, since May 1915, had been made available to the military Authority by Conforti himself to relieve the pain of the sick and injured in such dramatic moments for the country. In June of that year (1915), the Xaverian community had to withdraw to the top floor of the building at the back of Campo di Marte,[3] to make room for a convalescent home: the ground and first floors were occupied by the military; in 1916 there was room for 150 sick people. Despite the remonstrations of Conforti and the constant request to liberate some places, the seminarians and the fathers had to leave the Seminary. For one month, they found hospitality with the Stigmatine Missionaries (August 26, 1918).
In this unpredictable, mysterious, painful, never experienced before and yet “Holy” Week in which Jesus “enters” “humbly” in the city of Jerusalem (= our families as domestic churches,[4] our communities, our cities) to reaffirm the dignity of every person; to reveal to every person attention, listening, teaching, pardon, encouragement, healing, that is to put Himself in the service of others; in this dramatic, distressing and epochal time of our history in which we are called “to enter” with all our fragility; in this moment of pain and tears, of great trial, of passion and death in which a treacherous, insidious, unknown, surprising and lethal enemy called Covid 19 Virus is wounding and striking the whole of humanity and has hit to the heart also of our Xaverian missionary family; in this time in which we strongly feel the weakness and impotence of our human condition and where the fragility of some visions and missionary lifestyles also emerge, we are accompanied by Jesus our Lord who “enters” Jerusalem (= the core of our families) and faces in us and with us the mystery of the Holy Saturday. The darkest moment of our life is at the same time the most luminous sign, because the Holy Saturday, although it seems to remain between the death and the Resurrection, is “entered” by One, the Only One, who embraced his “Passion” (= intensity of love)[5] for us, for every person. From here, Jesus, the Beloved Son of God, opens the light of a new hope: the light of the Resurrection, the fulness of life, the explosion of life, the revolution of life.
With the Lord Jesus, a friend of His and a friend of us, Saint Guido Maria Conforti, a meek and close presence to the heart of every person surrounded by darkness,[6] especially those who do not know the compassionate love of the Risen Lord, accompanies us to raise and wave our Palms (= our lives) and to “enter” our families. His self-offering, full of trust, openness and care with an active waiting for the "three in the afternoon".[7]
During this period, as Xaverian Missionaries, we are also called to prepare ourselves for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the father's final will[8] with humility, gratitude, fidelity and hope, returning to what is essential. We do this by having in our hearts the names, faces, stories, testimonies, martyrdom (total self-giving), the creative gestures of solidarity without borders, the many simple and fragile "yes" of confreres who passed away in these last 30 days:[9] men of the Gospel, men of joy and trust, men animated by the spirit of forming a single family that embraces humanity in the friendship of the Lord.
We want to celebrate the grace of this century of the father's testament with confidence, sense of abandonment in the friendship of the Lord and in His Resurrection, with fraternity, resourcefulness, creativity for the many well-known and secret gestures of kindness, zeal, impulse, the total gift of self, the beauty, the spirit of sharing in the life of our "companions of vocation"[10] of different nationalities who today continue to “enter” with humility and fragility, and sow in the hearts of peoples and cultures the same spirit of the Gospel.
And together, we embrace also those young people of different cultures who continue to feel called and attracted by the "consoling spectacle"[11] of the missionary fraternity in the Xaverian family.
A centennial anniversary celebrated with our parents and benefactors, true instruments of the Providence of God in our life; with the laity and diocesan priests who for love of God and brothers and sisters non-Christians, work together with us, embracing the charism of Saint Guido Maria Conforti as a gift and a task. And in this celebration, we feel very close to the “names” of innumerable friends who in a particular moment of their life, shared a stretch of the missionary formation with our Xaverian family. They continue to keep in their different vocations, a living and precious spirit of family, with openness of heart and mind to brothers and sisters who do not know the tender and compassionate love of the Risen Lord.
A Centennial anniversary lived and experienced as an opportunity for discernment, conversion, renewal and willingness to improve - in living and witnessing - the call we have received gratuitously to serve our brothers and sisters non-Christians, and generate a new commitment to welcome and walk in a new way the path of proclamation-testimony of the "Gospel of Christ".[12] There is no other reason than the friendship and benevolence of the Risen Lord who is with us to decide to leave our "nets" and "boats",[13] to "go forth", to "leave" and to "remain" with our brothers non-Christians.[14]
In this journey of “going forth”, sent to share with all peoples the life of God who is Jesus Christ, we listen to the voices of our brothers non-Christians who in different languages and ways, praise, thank and share with us - in joy and sorrow - this gift of the "Common Father".[15]
At the same time, among the peoples and cultures in which we live, other voices that are very familiar to us, participate too in this Centennial Anniversary. They are the voices of a wounded humanity, the one of the refugees and migrants, the one of new forms of slavery and abuse: from the destruction of ecosystems and the greedy, bossy and indiscriminate exploitation of habitats that causes climate change, vast exodus of entire families, and new pandemics, to the criminal use of resources for the weapons of war that suffocate and destroy life, education, health, families, institutions and future. These voices are in us and with us. They are part of our identity in the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Testament Letter of Saint Guido Maria Conforti.
As Bishop of Parma, Guido Maria Conforti, sheltered in his life the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of men and women of his time, especially those who were poor or in any way afflicted.[16] Facing the Spanish Pandemic, along with other ecclesiastical authorities, with creativity, flexibility, simplicity in complex times, and capacity to find always new ways to respond to reality, he gave precise instructions to the clergy and to the people, to encourage hygienic measures among the faithful, to carry out extensive disinfection of the churches, especially on holidays, to encourage the population to reduce religious ceremonies in their duration and avoid large crowds in religious places. The organization of vigils and visits to the deceased, public commemorations and funeral processions on the streets of the city were also suspended:
"Like the war, the pandemic also affected the population with another trauma, that of the mourning without sorrow and consolation [...]. Death without condolences and ceremonies, deprived the population of the tools to face it: the transition without mediation from the house to the grave, aroused fear and horror in a culture that was used to face the end of life by celebrating together as a community and with a proper ceremony, and often in a domestic dimension.”
The solidarity with the refugees, the infected, the displaced, the abandoned and without shelter people was constantly at the center of the heart of Bishop Conforti. In a circular letter to the diocese of Parma he wrote:
“As the number of refugees from the lands invaded by the enemy army grows day by day, in search of hospitality, help and moral consolation, we are all called to demonstrate to them that active love that has to form the characteristic of a Christian and must continue to grow as the need increases. Therefore no one can remain indifferent in the face of so many tragedies […] For this reason, we invite again our clergy in the care of souls to exhort the faithful and show themselves generous with so many brothers among us, forced to abandon the domestic roof, the native land, the comforts, of which they abounded, and often everything more necessary for the sustenance of life, now that the rigid season is advancing with great strides. We request therefore a collection to be carried out in all the parish churches of the diocese…the proceeds of which must be sent to this Curia, and we will take great care to distribute it to the many who turn to us for help..."
Anna Frank, a Jewish victim of the Holocaust, in her “The Diary of a Young Girl” wrote: “How wonderful it is that there is no need to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. Everyone has in him/herself a piece of good news. And you don't know how big it can be! How much you can love! What can be accomplished! And what will be our potential![17]
On the page of December 31, 1918 of his personal journal, Saint Guido Maria Conforti noted:
“And here I am at the end of another year. How many graces from God; and how many shortcomings and ingratitude on my part. It was one of the saddest years of my life, because I spent this time amid many anxieties and worries. I had many serious tribulations, but the Lord has given me the strength to overcome them with enough strength and acceptance”.
Let us wish each other “Happy Easter”. Let us share the words “The Lord has risen” with the members of our domestic families, by living the Gospel together, with an open heart to the families of different cultures and religions who are facing with us the same tears, pain and hope. We do it with a thought of our Founder, Saint Guido Maria Conforti:
Resurrexit, He has risen[18].
Here is the great word, the summary of the largest of the works, epilogue of the most amazing triumphs, the unchallenged foundation of our faith. A word full of life, movement, joy and hope. We too have been fascinated by this word. Christ is truly the Resurrection and the life. He is truly the triumphant because he triumphed in our hearts and minds and founded a kingdom that will not see sunset, a kingdom of truth and justice, the kingdom of the true freedom and the universal brotherhood destined to unite among them with the gentle bond of love all the peoples of the earth to form one big family.[19]
[1] The Spanish flu, otherwise known as the Spanish or the great flu was a deadly flu pandemic that killed tens of millions of people around the world between 1918 and 1920. It was the first of the 20th century pandemics involving influence H1N1. Cf. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_spagnola.
[2] I am summarizing here some meaningful paragraphs of the excellent historical account of the “Spagnola” pandemic in the Diocese of Parma, presented in the Xaverian Journal Parma negli Anni. Luisella Brunazzi Menoni, “Parma 1918: tra trepidazione ed esultanza”, in Parma negli Anni: Societa’ Civile e Religiosa. Quaderno n. 23/2018 del Centro Studi Confortiani Saveriani. Istituto Missioni Estere, Parma 2019. Pp. 43-136.
[3] The name of the area where the Xaverian Seminary was located.
[4] The Gospel of Holy Monday presents Jesus “entering” the family of Lazarus, Martha and Mary (John 12:1-11. It is a family (= a community) composed of two sisters and a brother. After the resurrection of Lazarus, there is a banquet (a reminder of the eucharist, the banquets of the Risen One. To be “reclined at table” means to live; after death there is Resurrection, there is life. Therefore, in life we “recline at table” and celebrate it in our families). Lazarus is “with Jesus”, Martha is serving, and Mary is using a costly perfume to anoint Jesus. Martha and Mary are alive because they live on an experience of love of the presence of Risen One, that is, the new life. And the perfume is God. Jesus is with this family. Jesus is with our families.
[5] Cf. Jn 13:1: “…he loved them to the end.”
[6] Matthew 27:45: “From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.”
[7] Matthew 27:45: “… until three in the afternoon”.
[8] The father’s final will is the Testament Saint Guido Maria Conforti, the Founder of the Xaverian Missionaries, left to his sons. The Testament Letter (TL) is a clear and passionate project of Life for the Xaverians left by the Founder Saint Guido Maria Conforti to his beloved Institute. In his Testament, Conforti presents the fundamental dimensions of his Project and the spirit of the Constitutions, and therefore of the Congregation itself and the vocation of the Xaverians. The Xaverian are celebrating the 100th anniversary of this precious Letter (Parma, Mother House, 2 July 1921).
[9] Piero Zoni, Stefano Coronese, Gerardo Caglioni, Luigi Masseroni, Giuseppe Scintu, Guglielmo Saderi, Giuseppe Rizzi, Piermario Tassi, Vittorio Ferrari, Enrico Di Nicolò, Corrado Stradiotto, Pilade Giuseppe Rossini, Nicola Masi, Piergiorgio Bettati, Angelo Costalonga, Lucio Gregato e Francesco Cesare Grasso, Guglielmo Camera, Roberto Mancini and Alessandro Parmiggiani.
[10] Fundamental Rule n. 48. Ermanno Ferro a cura di, PAGINE CONFORTIANE, Parte Quinta: I “Tempi Costituzionali” per i Saveriani “Regole speciali”, 1897-1931. 1897, Ottobre, Parma - Borgo Leon d’Oro, Pag. 151. The term “companion” comes from Latin: “companio -onis”, composed of cum «together, with» and panis «bread», that is, companion is the one “who eats the bread with somebody else”. It is an expression used by the Founder to indicate the members of the Xaverian Family.
[11] LT n.9.
[12] This is a very dear and common expression in the thoughts of Saint Guido Maria Conforti: 1920, 3 novembre, Parma, Lettera ai sacerdoti membri dell’Unione Missionaria Clero; FCT 4, p. 268; 1929, 11 febbraio, Parma, Lettera pastorale “Chi è il Papa”; FCT 28, 345; Lettera “Chiusura visita pastorale”, Parma, 3 marzo 1923; FCT 27, 244; 1922, 8 dicembre, Parma, Omelia solennità Immacolata; FCT 27, 101-102; 1908, 25 novembre, Parma, Lettera Indizione 1° Visita pastorale; FCT 16, 317; 1903, 16 novembre, Ravenna, Lettera indizione Visita pastorale; FCT 12, 750; 1919, 14 giugno, Parma, Lettera “Società S. Girolamo diffusione Vangelo”; FCT 26, 596-597; 1922, 8 dicembre, Parma - Cattedrale, Omelia per l’Immacolata “Chiusura Visita pastorale”; FCT 27, 101-102; 1920, 23 maggio, Parma - Cattedrale, Omelia “Credo sanctam ecclesiam”; FCT 17, 313.
[13] Matt. 4:20: “Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”
[14] Matt. 28:19-20: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”
[15] 1924, 25 dicembre, Parma - Cattedrale, Omelia “Il Giubileo”; FCT 27, 174-175. In these days a group of friends of the Xaverian community in Taipei-Taiwan took the initiative to raise money to help the afflicted community of elderly missionaries living on the fourth floor of the Mother House in Parma-Italy. In China another group of friends sent surgical masks to the Xaverian nursing house of Parma.
[16] Cf. Gaudium et Spes n.1.
[17] Felleti S. Anna Frank. Dall’ Alloggio Segreto al Campo di Sterminio, Youcanprint Self-Publishing, Tricase, Italy. Page 32.
[18] Matthew 28:6.
[19] 1913, 23 marzo, Parma - Cattedrale, Omelia pasquale “La pratica religiosa: fede e opere”; FCT 21, 117.