Giustino Russolillo (18 January 1891 – 2 August 1955) - in religious Giustino Maria della SS. Trinità - was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

and the founder of the religious congregations of the

Vocationist Fathers The Society of Divine Vocations ( la, Societas Divinarum Vocationum) abbreviated S.D.V., also commonly known as the Vocationists, is a Roman Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men (Priests and Brothers) founded by ...

, the Vocationist Sisters and of the Secular Institute of the Apostles of Universal Sanctification.Louis Caputo, ''A Servant of the Divine Vocations: Fr. Justin Russolillo'' (New Jersey: Vocationist Fathers) 1988 Russolillo was a pastor at St. George Parish in Pianura, where he was born, and dedicated his life to promoting, cultivating and educating young people about God's call in their life. In doing so, he help young people to fulfill their religious vocation to priesthood and consecrated life. Russolillo was beatified under

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

on 7 May 2011 and the ceremony of beatification was presided over by the Pope's delegate, Cardinal

Angelo Amato Angelo Amato, S.D.B. (born 8 June 1938) is an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints between 2008 and 2018. He served as Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of th ...

, Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery of the Causes of Saints. On 27 October 2020, Pope Francis promulgated a decree approving a miracle attributed to Russolillo; this enabled for him to be canonized on 15 May 2022.

Life

Giustino Russolillo was born in

Pianura Pianura (Italian: "plain") is a western suburb of Naples, southern Italy. It is bounded on one side by the area of Soccavo and on the other side by the outskirts of the town of Pozzuoli. Personalities *Justin Russolillo (1891-1955), presbyter *G ...

in 1891 as the third of ten children to Luigi Russolillo and Giuseppina Simpatia. He was

baptized Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

the date after his birth, when an exceptional snowfall arrived in Pianura. While his name in the parish register was recorded as Giustino, his civic record had his name recorded as "Giustino Pietro Orazio". Giovanna, his sister, joined his female order and became the first Superior General, while his brother Ciro also entered the Vocationist and became a priest. His brother Michael became a doctor and helped him in his final month. He received his

first communion First Communion is a ceremony in some Christian traditions during which a person of the church first receives the Eucharist. It is most common in many parts of the Latin Church tradition of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Church and Anglican Communi ...

in 1896 and received private instruction from his paternal aunts as well as the priest Orazio Guillaro instructing him in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

. Once he completed his studies in

Pozzuoli Pozzuoli (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Naples, in the Italian region of Campania. It is the main city of the Phlegrean Peninsula. History Pozzuoli began as the Greek colony of ''Dicaearchia'' ( el, Δικα ...

to become a

- he was there since 1901 - he was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform var ...

as priest on September 20, 1913. On his ordination he vowed to establish a

religious congregation A religious congregation is a type of religious institute in the Catholic Church. They are legally distinguished from religious orders – the other major type of religious institute – in that members take simple vows, whereas members of religio ...

for promoting vocations to the priesthood and to religious life. On 30 April 1914 - with a group of men that had been in formation (as a seminarian he used to teach catechism in his town and he found in some of them some true signs of vocation and continued to give them formation even after becoming a priest) - he tried to set up a small group dedicated to this but this did not last too long. He was appointed as the parish priest of San Giorgio's church in Pianura in 1920 and took possession of it on 20 September. On 18 October 1920 he started the

and on 2 October 1921 also founded the Vocationist Sisters. The Vocationist Fathers received diocesan approval on 26 May 1927. On 18 January 1931 he made his vows into the order to the

Bishop of Capaccio The Italian Catholic Diocese of Vallo della Lucania ( la, Dioecesis Vallensis in Lucania), in Campania, has existed under this name since 1945. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Salerno-Campagna-Acerno.

Francesco Cammarota and assumed his new name. The Vocationist Sisters became an order of

pontifical right In Catholicism "of pontifical right" is the term given to ecclesiastical institutions (religious and secular institutes, societies of apostolic life) either created by the Holy See, or approved by it with the formal decree known by the Latin nam ...

on 24 May 1947 and the Vocationist Fathers became one as such on 3 January 1948. But before these two approvals could be given both orders needed an official apostolic visit: Raffaele Baldini of the

Servants of Mary The Servite Order, officially known as the Order of Servants of Mary ( la, Ordo Servorum Beatae Mariae Virginis; abbreviation: OSM), is one of the five original Catholic mendicant orders. It includes several branches of friars (priests and brothe ...

undertook one in 1941 and then the Franciscan Serafino Cuomo undertook the second in 1945 after the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. In 1950 he sent three priests to the missions in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

to open a branch of the order there. In spring 1955 he collapsed several times due to ill health and - on the advice of Doctor De Simone - did not lead the procession for the Corpus Christi on 9 June and on 16 July was instructed by Doctor Cataldi to rest at the Monaldi Hospital in Naples; but from 20 to 27 July he visited novices from his orders with Raffaele Castiglione. A blood test taken a short time later confirmed that he was dying from

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

and his mother Giuseppina and his sister rushed from

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

to be with him around this point; he was hospitalized on 1 August. Russolillo died from leukemia on 2 August 1955 in Pianura at 9:10 pm after receiving the

Last Rites The last rites, also known as the Commendation of the Dying, are the last prayers and ministrations given to an individual of Christian faith, when possible, shortly before death. They may be administered to those awaiting execution, mortal ...

. His remains were later reinterred on 14 April 1956 in the motherhouse of the Vocationist Fathers at Pianura. Russolillo's orders now serves in many nations: in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

(Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia), in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

(Nigeria, Madagascar, South Africa), in Europe (Italy, United Kingdom, France), North America (

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...

, Canada) and in Asia (India, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam) as well as in Australia

Sainthood

The beatification process commenced on 15 December 1977 under

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his death in Augus ...

after the

Congregation for the Causes of Saints In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, pa ...

issued the official "

nihil obstat ''Nihil obstat'' (Latin for "nothing hinders" or "nothing stands in the way") is a declaration of no objection that warrants censoring of a book, e.g., Catholic published books, to an initiative, or an appointment. Publishing The phrase ''ni ...

" to the cause and titled the late Russolillo as a Servant of God while transferring the location of the beatification process from Pozzuoli to Naples on 7 July 1978. Cardinal

Corrado Ursi Corrado Ursi (26 July 1908 – 29 August 2003) was an Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Naples from 1966 to 1987, and was created a cardinal in 1967, given the titular church of San Callisto.Positio In the Catholic Church, a ''positio'' (''Positio super Virtutibus'') is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a person is declared Venerable, the second of the four steps on the path to canonization as a saint. Des ...

dossier from the postulation in 1991. Theologians approved the dossier on 7 February 1997 while the C.C.S. did likewise on 18 December 1997.

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

named Russolillo as being

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cat ...

on 18 December 1997 after he confirmed that the late priest lived a life of

heroic virtue Heroic virtue is a phrase coined by Augustine of Hippo to describe the virtue of early Christian martyrs and used by the Catholic Church. The Greek pagan term hero described a person with possibly superhuman abilities and great goodness, and "it ...

. The process for a miracle spanned from 16 March 2005 to 14 November 2005 and was validated on 9 March 2007 before receiving the approval of a medical board on 18 June 2009 and that of theologians on 12 December 2009; the C.C.S. followed suit on 1 June 2010.

approved it on 1 July 2010 and Cardinal

beatified Russolillo in Naples on 7 May 2011 on the pope's behalf.

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

in 2020 confirmed a second miracle attributed to him (the healing of the Vocationist religious brother Emile Rasolofo in

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

). It was announced on 9 November 2021 that Francis would canonize Russolillo and several others on 15 May 2022.

Works

*The writing of Blessed Justin have been collected in 27 Vocumes of the "Opera Omnia", in Italian. Many books of the Opera Omnia have been translated in English as well. Some more prominent books are: *Ascension *Spirit of Prayer *Let us make man part I *Let us make man, part II *For Mental Prayer *Consecrations *Costuitutions *Letters, I, II, III *Journey toward the Espousal Union *Longing for love * *Among the prayer books that he wrote and are now used by his religious congregations are: *''Offertories of the Most Precious Blood'' *''Devotional''

References

External links

Hagiography CircleBlessed Justin Biography on the Official Vocationist Website - Multiple languagesWritings of Blessed Justin - in EnglishVocationist FathersBiography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russolillo, Giustino 1891 births 1955 deaths 20th-century venerated Christians 20th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests Beatifications by Pope Benedict XVI Deaths from leukemia Founders of Catholic religious communities Italian beatified people 19th-century Neapolitan people Venerated Catholics by Pope John Paul II Canonizations by Pope Francis