At Turin in Piedmont, Saint Ignatius of Santhià (Lorenzo Maurizio Belvisotti), priest of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, assiduous in hearing penitents and in tending the sick.
Lifespan: 1686–1770
Beatified: 17 April 1966 by Pope Paul VI
Canonized: 19 May 2002 by Pope John Paul II, St. Peter’s Square
Memoria liturgica: 22 September
“Heaven is not made for idlers. Let us work, then!”
Ignatius of Santhià
Lorenzo Maurizio Belvisotti — such was his baptismal name — was born on 5 June 1686 at Santhià (Vercelli), the fourth of six children in the prosperous family of Pier Paolo Belvisotti and Maria Elisabetta Balocco. Left fatherless at the age of seven, his mother provided for his formation by entrusting him to the pious and learned priest Don Bartolomeo Quallio, a kinsman of the family. Sensing a call to the ecclesiastical life, after completing his primary schooling in his native town, in 1706 Lorenzo Maurizio went to Vercelli for his studies in philosophy and theology. Ordained to the priesthood in the autumn of 1710, he remained in the provincial capital as chaplain-instructor to the noble Avogadro family. In these early years of priesthood he also joined in the apostolate of the Jesuits, particularly in preaching popular missions, and came to know his future spiritual director, the Jesuit father Cacciamala.
His native Santhià, eager to claim its own townsman, elected him canon-rector of its distinguished collegiate church. For their part, the Avogadros appointed him pastor of the parish of Casanova Elvo, of which they held the right of patronage. Yet the not-quite-thirty-year-old Don Belvisotti was not in search of worldly honours: he had set his sights on very different goals. Renouncing both appointments and their attached benefices, on 24 May 1716 he entered the Capuchin novitiate at Chieri (Turin) and took the name of Brother Ignatius of Santhià, with the intention of going one day to the foreign missions.
His steadfastness in striving for perfection, and his full, attentive, spontaneous, and joyful observance of Capuchin life, drew the admiration even of the most senior religious in the novitiate. After his years of Capuchin formation — spent at Saluzzo, Chieri, and Turin, at the Monte dei Cappuccini — the Provincial Chapter of 31 August 1731 appointed him novice master at the convent of Mondovì (Cuneo). He remained in that office for thirteen years, and through his teaching and above all through the witness of his life, Ignatius provided the Piedmontese monastic Province with no fewer than 121 new friars, some of whom would die in the odour of sanctity.
Learning of the sufferings of Father Bernardino Ignazio dalla Vezza, one of his former novices and a missionary in the Congo, and of the risk that he might be compelled to abandon his missionary work, Ignatius prostrated himself before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and, with characteristic simplicity, made the offering dictated by his most exalted charity:
“My Lord Jesus Christ, if it pleases you that the illness of this good workman should pass to me, who am good for nothing, let it be so. I accept it willingly for your glory.”
The missionary was able to resume his apostolic labours, for his illness had vanished — while for Ignatius there began the sufferings that would compel him to relinquish his office.
Obedience to his superiors — from which he never withdrew — led him to serve, as head chaplain, with the army of the King of Sardinia Charles Emmanuel III during the war against the Franco-Spanish forces (1745–1746), attending to the wounded and those stricken by disease in the hospitals of Asti, Alessandria, and Vinovo.
The gravely ill, the most grievously wounded, bodies broken and torn — they filled the wards. In that world of suffering, Father Ignatius was an angel of consolation. A historical document written by an eyewitness records:
“He ran from ward to ward, from bed to bed, driven by a love that was unfailingly attentive, devoted, and tireless in attending to the sick soldiers.”
Eyewitness account, contemporary historical document
When the war ended, the Convent of Monte dei Cappuccini in Turin received him once more for the last period of his life (1747–1770). With measureless generosity and humble, intense spiritual charity, Ignatius divided his pastoral activity between the convent and the city of Turin: he preached, attended to the ministry of reconciliation, and, despite his advancing years and serious illnesses, descended the hill on which the convent stands to make his way through the city streets and visit the poor and the sick from house to house — those who waited for the comfort of his word and the blessing they begged of him.
He loved silence, recollection, and prolonged vigils at the feet of the Tabernacle, yet he could also roll up his sleeves and put himself at the service of the sick and the poor of the community. “Heaven,” he used to say, “is not made for idlers. Let us work, then!”
Meanwhile, wonders continued to multiply, and the people called him “the saint of the Monte.” At the same time, the veneration of the most distinguished personages of Piedmont gathered around him: from the reigning family to the Archbishop of Turin, Giovanni Battista Roero; from the first court bishop, Cardinal Vittorio Delle Lanze, to the grand chancellor Carlo Luigi Caisotti di Santa Vittoria and the mayor of the city.
“Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart…” These are the words of Jesus, and like all the saints, Father Ignatius took care that they should not fall from the mouth of the Saviour in vain. Humility was rooted in his heart and alive in his manner of acting and speaking. He knew that humility is an authentic and sincere knowledge of God and of oneself, and for this reason he never missed an opportunity to study, to admire the goodness and greatness of God, and to deepen his understanding of his own littleness. Until well into advanced age — that is, until a few years before his death — he performed the humblest daily tasks of convent life.
He spent his last two years in the infirmary of his convent, continuing to bless, to hear confessions, and to counsel all who came to him. His ardent desire for God, nourished by contemplation of the Crucified and by reading the Gospel, consumed him. His life appeared now to be wholly absorbed and transformed in that Crucified Lord whom he could not remove from his gaze.
On 22 September 1770, the feast of Saint Maurice — his patron and patron of the Capuchin Province of Piedmont — Brother Ignatius died serenely in his cell at the age of eighty-four. News of his death spread rapidly, and such an enormous crowd gathered to pay homage to his remains that the superior of the convent, fearing a crush of people, had the funeral celebrated ahead of the appointed hour.