06/07/2022 – St. Anthony Mary Gianelli

Today’s feast is of a parish priest and bishop, St Anthony Mary Gianelli.

From the beginning, Anthony was called “Son of Prayer” because at birth both he and his mother were dying.

It was Easter Sunday morning, and the small farming village begged the Risen Lord to breath life into the mother and baby. The little cottage was surrounded by continual rosaries and miraculously both lived.Little Anthony grew up with a love of the rosary and a sense that he and his mother had been spared for mission. She raised him for the service of the Church to the very best of his God given gifts.

As a priest Anthony zealously sought the salvation of every soul entrusted to his care. Like the villagers at his birth, he was not willing to see even one soul lost. Instead he surrounded them with the love of Jesus and Mary in the sacraments, catechesis and especially the prayer of the rosary.