# Matins Nocturn 2 reading for St. John Baptist de Rossi, Confessor
# (May 23). Sourced directly from web/www/horas/Latin/Sancti/05-23.txt,
# English/Sancti/05-23.txt. Lectio4-6 combined into one reading, one
# continuous vita (his own file has no Lectio94/teDeum marker at all --
# not a gap, just how the source lays out this particular office). No
# Lectio7-9 in his own file (his `[Rule]` is `vide C5`) -- defers to
# the Common of a Confessor's own Nocturn 3, not transcribed here.
id: st-john-baptist-de-rossi
readings:
  - nocturn: 2
    isGospel: false
    text:
      la: >-
        Joannes Baptista de Rossi Veiturii in Liguria honesto genere ortus, adhuc puer
        morum suavitate ac pietatis studio in omnium admiratione fuit. Tredecim annos
        natus visus est Dei consilio Romam mitti, ut apostoli munus in ea expleret.
        Inter ephebos Collegii Romani Societatis Jesu adlectus, ingenio et virtute
        præluxit. Curabat impense, ut ii Mariano sodalitio frequentes adessent, in
        nosocomiis segris ministrarent, honestaque animarum recreatione retraherentur a
        noxiis; interim cælestia sermonibus pertractans segniores excitabat, ac proinde
        Apostoli agnomen adeptus est. Ob asperam corporis castigationem gravi morbo
        correptus, ab usitata sibi studiorum severitate aliquantum remittere coactus
        fuit: quod divinitus factum ajebat, ne scientia inflatus sua potius quæreret,
        quam quæ Jesu Christi. Clericali militiæ adscriptus sacris disciplinis in sancti
        Thomæ collegio operam dedit, ac in virtute proficiens, dein ingenti animi
        voluptate sacerdotio est auctus. Ita Dominum in hereditatem sibi constituit, ut
        nullum, ne oblatum quidem, ecclesiasticum beneficium acceptandi, nisi
        obedientia adigeretur, singulari voto se obstrinxerit.


        De spirituali proximorum salute jam ab adolescentia sollicitus, sacerdos factus
        in id totum se devovit. Ecclesiasticos viros, sacras virgines, oppidanos,
        carcere detentos, imam plebem universam mira suavitate, verbi ministerio ad
        virtutis amórem inflammabat. Plures quotidie horas rudiorum confessionibus
        excipiendis impendens, ægrotis aderat vel in domibus vel in valetudinarus,
        præsertim phisicis, quos sui veluti juris esse affirmabat. Hac illac per urbem
        alacer advolans, innumeris operibus præsto erat: at assiduus in sanctæ Gallæ
        hospitio versabatur, ut pauperes, quos carissimos habuit, omni ope juvaret. Ob
        id a decimo quinto ætatis anno adjunctus sacerdotum cœtui, qui eisdem
        evangelizando addicti sunt, ibi apostolatus sui rationem didicit, ipsiusque
        societatis opera instauravit et auxit. Eadem misericordia motus egenorum omnium
        necessitatibus sublevandis modicam suam substantiam impendit. Perennes autem
        infatigabilis sui zeli fructus reliquit, satellitum, vagorum, rudium
        institutionem, catecheses ad sancte Pascha celebrandum, certam custodiam
        perditarum, noctuque per Urbem vagantium mulierum hospitium, præcipue vero
        studium lucrandi animas in clero excitatum.


        Caritatis in Deum ardor ex ejus ore emicabat, dum sacris operabatur, nec sine
        lacrimis de ejus bonitate loqui poterat. In collegium canonicorum basilicæ
        sanctæ Mariæ in Cosmedin ex obedientia cooptatus, inter psallendum extra sensus
        rapi videbatur. In sacris ceremoniis diligentissimus, domus Dei decorem
        promovit, et in id suas opes libenter erogabat. Amorem erga Deiparam in alios
        effundebat, ejusque cultum in sua ecclesia fovit, addito étiam psalmodiæ
        quotidiano laudum præconio. Philippi Nerii spiritu imbui studens, et in omnes
        cælites pius, Apostolorum Principum obsequium augendum curavit. In oratione
        omnique virtutum exercitatione assiduus, supernis quoque charismatibus donatus,
        tandem in hospitio, cui nomen a sanctissima Trinitate, quo se reduxerat in
        sacerdotum convictum, laboribus fractus ad vitæ exitum adductus est, atque
        Ecclesiæ sacramentis refectus, caritatis opera et pauperum curam commendans,
        decessit in osculo Domini, die vigesima tertia Maji, anno Christi millesimo
        septingentesimo sexagesimo quarto, ætatis suæ sexagesimo sexto. Insigne adeo
        sacerdotalis virtutis exemplar miraculis Deus illustrare dignatus est, quibus
        rite probatis, Summus Pontifex Pius nonus tertio Idus Maji anno millesimo
        octingentesimo sexagesimo cælitum beatorum honoribus auxit: novisque fulgentem
        signis Leo decimus tertius sexto Idus Decembris anno millesimo octingentesimo
        octogesimo primo in sanctorum albo recensuit.
      en: >-
        John Baptist de Rossi was born of a respectable family at Voltaggio, in the
        diocese of Genoa, and, as a child, was the wonder of all on account of his
        gentleness and godliness. At thirteen years of age the good providence of God
        sent him to Rome, where he was destined afterwards to do the work of an
        Apostle. As a student at the Roman College he was distinguished both for his
        talents and his goodness. He was very anxious that his comrades should attend
        regularly the meetings of the guild of the Blessed Virgin, should minister to
        the sick in hospitals, and should be diverted from objectionable recreations by
        harmless amusements; at the same time he stirred up the more sluggish by his
        words on heavenly things, and from that time got the surname of Apostle. He fell
        seriously ill on account of his severe treatment of his own body, and was
        therefore obliged to relax somewhat the earnestness of his studies. This he was
        accustomed to say was God's dealing with him that he might not be puffed up
        with knowledge, and so seek his own rather than those things which are Jesus
        Christ's. After joining the clergy he went through the sacred training in the
        College of St. Thomas, where he went from strength to strength, and then with
        deep joy of soul received the Priesthood. He so chose the Lord to be his own
        inheritance, that he bound himself by a special vow not to accept any church
        benefice, even if it were offered him quite unsolicited, unless he were
        compelled to do so by obedience.


        After he became a Priest, he devoted himself entirely to the spiritual health of
        his neighbours, which had been his care from his youth up. By the ministry of
        the Word, with wonderful gentleness he stirred up to the love of good alike
        ecclesiastics, holy virgins, citizens, prisoners, and the whole lowest class of
        the population. He spent several hours every day in hearing the confessions of
        the illiterate, and visited in their homes or in hospitals the sick, and
        especially the consumptive, of whom he spoke as his own. He hurried about the
        city, and took part in countless good works, but was especially careful in
        visiting the hospital of St. Galla, to help in every way he could the poor, whom
        he held as a special object of affection. From his fifteenth year he was joined
        to a body of Priests whose special work was preaching to the poor, with them he
        learnt his apostleship, and he arranged and disseminated their labours. The same
        pity caused him to spend his modest substance in relieving the necessities of
        the needy. He left behind him abiding fruits of his unwearied zeal for the
        instruction of servants, wanderers, and the illiterate classes for the holy
        celebration of Easter, an home of refuge for the safe keeping of the lost women
        who wander through the city by night, but above all the earnestness for the
        salvation of souls aroused among the clergy.


        The brightness of his love of God shone forth in his face while he was
        officiating, and he could not speak of His goodness without tears. He was
        forced, out of obedience, to accept a Canon's stall in the collegiate church of
        St. Mary in Cosmedin, and during the psalmody he seemed to become entranced. He
        was very careful as to the sacred ceremonies, sought the beauty of the house of
        God, and freely contributed of his means to that object. He communicated to
        others his own love towards the Mother of God, and he promoted her worship in
        his own church, where he instituted a daily sermon in her honour, in addition
        to her Office. He sought to fill himself with the spirit of Philip Neri, and
        while he was devout towards all the dwellers in heaven, he promoted increased
        honour for the princes of the Apostles; he was constant in prayer and in every
        good work, and rich in gifts of grace. At length in the hospital called that of
        the Most Holy Trinity, whither he had withdrawn to live along with the Priests,
        broken down by work, he reached the end of life, and when he had received the
        sacraments of the Church, and again exhorted to works of charity and to the
        care of the poor, he died in the Lord's kiss upon the 23rd day of May, in the
        year of Christ 1764, and of his own age the sixty-sixth. God was pleased to
        mark by miracles so remarkable an example of priestly grace, and when these had
        been duly proved, the Supreme Pontiff Pius IX., upon the 13th day of May, in the
        year 1860, ascribed to him the honours paid to the blessed in heaven. As new
        signs still distinguished him, Leo XIII., upon the 8th day of December, in the
        year 1881, enrolled him among the Saints.
    status: { la: verified, en: verified }
