Giovanni
Battista de Rossi was born in the Piedmontese village of Voltaggio, in
the diocese of Genoa, and was one of four children. His parents, of
modest means, were devout and well esteemed.
A nobleman and his
wife vacationing in Voltaggio, and impressed with the ten-year-old John
Baptist, obtained permission from his parents to take him to live with
them and be trained in their house in Genoa.
After three years,
hearing of his virtues, John’s cousin, Lorenzo Rossi, Canon of Santa
Maria in Cosmedin, invited him to join him in Rome. Thus John Baptist
entered the Roman Jesuit College at thirteen. Despite episodes of
epilepsy, brought on by excessive zeal in imposing harsh penances upon
himself, he was granted a dispensation and was ordained at the age of
twenty-three.
From his student days he loved visiting hospitals.
Now, as a priest there was much more he could offer suffering souls. He
particularly loved the Hospice of St. Galla, a night shelter for
paupers. There he labored for forty years. He also worked at the
hospital of Trinita dei Pellegrini and extended his assistance to other
poor such as cattlemen who came to market at the Roman forum. He had a
great pity for homeless women and girls and from the little that he made
in Mass stipends, and the 400 scudi sent to him by the Pope, he rented a
refuge for them.
John Baptist was also selected by Pope Benedict
XIV to deliver courses of instruction to prison officials and other
state servants. Among his penitents was the public hangman.
In
1731 Canon Rossi obtained for his cousin a post of assistant priest at
St. Maria in Cosmedin. He was a great confessor to whom penitents
flocked, and as a preacher, the saint was also in demand for missions
and retreats.
On the death of Canon Rossi, Fr. John inherited his
canonry, but applied the money attached to the post to buy an organ,
and hire an organist. As to the house, he gave it to the chapter and
went to live in the attic.
In 1763 St. John Baptist’s health
began to fail, and he was obliged to take up residence in the hospital
of Trinita dei Pellegrini. He expired after a couple of strokes on May
23, 1764 at sixty- six years of age. He died so poor that the hospital
prepared to pay for his burial. But the Church took over and he was
given a triumphant funeral with numerous clergy and religious, and the
Papal choir, in attendance.
Sunday, May 23, 2021
St. John Baptist de Rossi
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