Trivolzio, the little Lourdes of the Po Valley February 1995-February 2005: the devotion of Don Giussani and the surprises of the Lord. Testimony of Don Angelo Beretta, parish priest of the parish of the holy martyrs Cornelius and Cyprian in Trivolzio, where the body of Saint Riccardo Pampuri is preserved and venerated by Angelo Beretta, parish priest in Trivolzio for 25 years Trivolzio If at the beginning of 1995 they had told me that in a few years the town of Trivolzio, then little known, would have been known in many parts of Italy and even the world, I certainly would not have been able to believe it. Trivolzio is a small town (just over a thousand inhabitants), located between Milan and Pavia. The parish has an imposing bell tower (which can be seen when passing on the Milan-Genoa motorway) and a beautiful church built in 1500 by the Franciscans who were then driven out by Napoleon. In the church there is the body of a saint, born here: Riccardo Pampuri. Until 1995 he was considered one of the many saints proclaimed by Pope Wojtyla. Saint Riccardo Pampuri was born in Trivolzio, worked as a doctor in Morimondo for seven years, at the age of thirty he entered the order of the Fatebenefratelli and died young, at 33. He was buried (1930) in the Trivolzio cemetery and then brought to the parish church in 1951 and immediately gave graces and miracles to those who invoked him, but he was only known in our area and by the Fatebenefratelli (he was their first saint after the founder Saint John of God). Through Saint Riccardo, here in Trivolzio since February 1995, humanly unthinkable things have happened of which I have been the witness, things not thought of or planned by me: I limited myself to not hindering what the Lord wanted and implemented. I would like to try to say a few things about everything that happened from February 1995 to February 2005. I will begin by introducing myself. I was born in 1938 in Pavia and have always lived here in the Pavia area. At the age of twelve I entered the seminary and after thirteen years, on 28 June 1963, I became a priest. I became a priest to proclaim Jesus Christ. Having, as Saint John says, believed in the Love of God, I became a priest to announce and spread this Love. My first five years as a priest were lived with great enthusiasm in an oratory on the outskirts of Pavia; then I taught religion at school and was a parish priest first in a small town where attendance at services was very high and then in a larger town, which was then very tied to a certain type of ideology, where people rarely came to church (it It was while going to Lourdes that I began to notice that many people still attend church, something that today I see every day in Trivolzio). In 1988 I retired from school and the bishop sent me to Trivolzio telling me that I would find a large and beautiful oratory and a blessed: Riccardo Pampuri. To be honest, I must say that I felt very attracted to the oratory in which I thought I would be able to do great things with the children and young people, while I knew little about Saint Riccardo. And I immediately began to renovate the oratory, even though, as the town does not develop, families are aging and the children are fewer. A year and a half after my arrival in Trivolzio (1 November 1989), Riccardo Pampuri was proclaimed a saint. And I was lucky enough to concelebrate the holy mass of the canonization with the Pope. It was a moving event, around the altar were almost all the inhabitants of Trivolzio. I was there with the Pope, cardinals, bishops... I, a poor priest, who however had the fortune of being the parish priest of Trivolzio, the saint's homeland. On our return we organized great celebrations in which many participated, including many Spaniards, since the miracle recognized for the canonization of Riccardo Pampuri concerned a Spanish boy. Faithful during the kiss of the relic of Saint Richard Return to normality Months pass and here in Trivolzio everything returns to normal. Pope Wojtyla made many saints... and Trivolzio is a parish like many others, at Mass on Sundays it's practically just us, every now and then there are some foreigners. Of course, there are people who come to pray to Saint Riccardo, but they are few and from our area. Only on May 1st, the day of his death and therefore the date of the liturgical feast of Saint Richard, do many people arrive throughout the day. Near the altar of Saint Richard I placed a register where I could put a signature or a prayer, an invocation, a question to the saint: from 1989 to 1995, only three were filled. And so, while we were thinking about whether it was possible to organize some demonstration for 1997, the centenary of the birth of Saint Richard, one Saturday morning in February 1995 I was called to the church and found it full of people. "Saint Richard performed a miracle," I am told. Of course, Saint Richard certainly performed miracles, otherwise he wouldn't be a saint. The people in the church belong to Communion and Liberation and they show me a copy of Traces where there is the story of the life of our saint and the story of a miracle just performed by Saint Richard. From that moment the pilgrimage of many people began here in Trivolzio. On Saturday evenings there are many young people and on Sundays there are families with many children. (Some of CL already knew Saint Riccardo: nearby, in Coazzano, there is a house of the Memores Domini dedicated for a long time to Blessed Riccardo Pampuri, and Lorenzo Frugiuele, who wrote a life in verse of Saint Riccardo, had already come before of 1995 to pray to him for help in his illness). The following month (March 1995) Tracce publishes the life and miracles of another holy doctor contemporary of Saint Richard, Giuseppe Moscati of Naples, but the people of Naples arrive in Trivolzio. Since then, since February 1995, every Saturday evening and every Sunday the church has been full. Only on Christmas Day there are almost no foreigners in the morning, there are only us from Trivolzio. Sometimes, especially in the first months of 1995, on Sunday morning I asked myself: but will so many people still come today? And then the church filled up. Yet in Trivolzio there is no restaurant, there is nothing special: there is only one saint and people come just for this. When it's not cold, in the oratory, outdoors, there are up to three hundred people eating packed lunches... In winter there is only one hall in which no more than one hundred people fit. And people come from all over Italy and, we can say, also from all over the world. There are now groups from various parts of Italy - not only from Milan, Turin, Bologna, Genoa, but also from Palermo, Bari, Verona, Cagliari, Venice - who periodically organize pilgrimages to Trivolzio. It is beautiful to see large groups of young people, families, friends come here together to ask for healing, graces or even just help with daily life. Meeting with Monsignor Giussani The one who indicated Saint Riccardo to CL was Monsignor Giussani. I don't belong to CL, I had heard about it from Don Giulio Bosco, a seminary friend of mine who, having become a priest, went to Milan to study and started CL in Pavia. Unfortunately Don Giulio died young in an accident in the mountains and I never had the opportunity to meet Cl again. Our seminary rector, who later became bishop, Monsignor Luigi Maverna, told us that we must be priests of Jesus Christ. Today, even without being from CL, I find myself among people of Communion and Liberation, and we now know each other well. The first times the people of CL came here to the church with a certain fear, but then, seeing themselves accepted, they came more and more willingly. I am convinced that we must be attentive to what the Lord does among us and promote good even if we have not organized it. Let's return to Monsignor Giussani. I met him when he came to celebrate mass at St. Richard's for the first time. They had phoned me that a priest would be coming to celebrate mass at 11am. While I was preparing the altar, I see a priest in the church and I ask him if he should celebrate. Shortly afterwards I ask him again if it was he who had called. Upon his negative response, I invite him to wait, I go to the church square and see Monsignor Giussani arrive. It was the first time I had met him, yet after a few words it seemed like he had known me forever. He celebrated Holy Mass, then came to the oratory to have a coffee, not with milk, but with a grappa. We talked and I felt really comfortable. At a certain point he asks me why we don't buy the farmhouse that is next to the church square and which had just been left uninhabited, to create a welcoming place. I was perplexed, but he encouraged me by telling me: "I'll send you the money for the deposit", leaving those who accompanied him amazed. This was the beginning of the project for a place of welcome, refreshment and spirituality center which, after ten years of vicissitudes, we hope to soon inaugurate. All this was born from the encouragement, the help, the enthusiasm that Monsignor Giussani conveyed to me in his visits to San Riccardo here in Trivolzio. The registers placed near the urn of Saint Richard The miracles Today Trivolzio is called "little Lourdes" for the numerous miracles and graces that Saint Richard obtains from the Lord for all those who invoke him. We find many of them told in the registers near the urn of Saint Riccardo (some were reported by Gabriella Meroni in the book A san Riccardo, Piemme). There are many graces and miracles that are not publicised, but made known only to friends, for which we thank Saint Riccardo there in the register. Next to the urn of Saint Richard there are now no longer one, but four registers and if from 1989 to 1995 only three were filled, from 1995 to today 143 have been filled, with an average of more than one per month . News of miracles comes not only from every part of Italy, but also from North and South America, Africa and Asia. In the church of Saint John, in Minnesota, there is a statue of Saint Richard, donated by Monsignor Giussani, in front of which the patients of the Mayo Clinic go to pray and ask for help. We must underline that miracles are not only healings, but also conversions, help in accepting God's will in times of difficulty. Then there are couples who achieve the birth of children, there are young men and women who not only get help with exams or work, but also to find the right partner for life. In particular, many come to ask for help to understand the plan that God has for them and to correspond to his plan. How this devotion spreads The devotion to Saint Richard began to spread among the people of CL, in particular through the words of Monsignor Giussani. But the devotion to our saint expands more and more, even beyond the borders of CL, especially through word of mouth. Then there was also the television program "Miracles" in which Saint Richard was presented. After the broadcast, hundreds of phone calls and letters arrived asking for news and images of the saint. Piero Vigorelli, author of the programme, has also published the book Miracoli, currently distributed in paperback, which also lists my telephone number: not a week goes by that I don't receive calls from people from all over Italy with requests for information. Currently we also have a website, where there are prayers in various languages and news of what is happening here in Trivolzio. We hope we can improve it more and more. The reception center near the parish of Trivolzio and some images of Saint Riccardo The reception center near the parish of Trivolzio and some images of Saint Riccardo Without our merit Everything that has happened since February 1995 did not happen due to a pre-established plan or for our plan: on my part there was only the commitment to say yes by accepting and favoring what the Lord indicated to us. Everything came about spontaneously. At the beginning the people of Trivolzio also found themselves disconcerted: they no longer had the place they had always occupied in the church. But then he accepted the pilgrims. I have tried to understand God's plan and to accept and favor it and this church of ours has become the "home" of all those who come to seek help, support, grace from Saint Riccardo. Nobody tried to take advantage of the flow of people, there is only one - not from Trivolzio - who comes to sell honey on some Sundays. I, who felt more at ease in the oratory, found myself giving birth to, creating a sanctuary with all that it entails: objects, images, memories... People asked for something to feel close to the saint. At the beginning, some had predicted that the whole thing would not last more than six months. Ten years have passed since February 1995 and we are still here, indeed we are about to create a spirituality center around Saint Riccardo. For me it was wonderful to get to know Saint Riccardo more and better, reading his letters and the testimonies of those who knew him. He is the saint of everyday life: doing everything every day with love and putting God, who for him was "everything", at the center of life. In recent years I have understood that we must leave it to the Lord, entrust ourselves to him. His times and ways are unpredictable and are not as we think and would like. A popular saint In the Church there are many saints, but some are better known and invoked by people such as Saint Anthony, Saint Rita, Padre Pio. Saint Richard is also becoming an increasingly well-known and popular saint. His normality is striking: a health insurance doctor, we would say today, who has been among people, living a normal life, but in love ("doing everything, even the small things, with great love"), a constant and everyday life that becomes heroic. It is striking how Riccardo manages to enter the souls of young people who feel he is one of them. They ask him for help in various moments of their lives: study, work, sentimental problems and, in the future, for family life. Saint Richard lived among young people and tried to convey to them enthusiasm and love for Christ Jesus. Also striking is the enthusiasm with which children come to kiss his relic and how families invoke him as a doctor of bodies and souls. The bell tower and tympanum of the church of Trivolzio How to pray to Saint Riccardo here in the church of Trivolzio. Here at San Riccardo there are no special services. We try to live the liturgy well, especially the Holy Mass, and at the end of the Mass, on Saturday evening and Sunday, there is a kiss to the relic of the saint. This kiss (those who do not wish to kiss, but normally everyone does, can also just touch the relic), is intended to be a sign of closeness, as people in Palestine touched Jesus' clothes, it is intended to be an act of love towards a friend we ask for help. And then we try to encourage confessions. Whoever comes to ask for a grace understands that Saint Riccardo, in order for him to listen to him, wants him to be in friendship with the Lord and this only happens if we are in God's grace. years, she had no longer confessed and that she feels the need to have the grace of God in her heart. During all the holy masses we say a prayer for all the intentions of those who come to ask Saint Riccardo for help. On Sunday, at 4.00 pm, we celebrate the Holy Mass for the intentions of all those who have come to Saint Riccardo this week to entrust themselves to him by presenting all their needs and problems. The little Lourdes of the Po Valley God chooses places where he makes his presence felt in a particular way. In recent years he also wanted to choose the church of Trivolzio to distribute help and graces through the intercession of Saint Riccardo. It is he, the Lord, who chose. We have tried not to impede this choice and to be welcoming to all those who come here. Saint Richard continues to intercede with the Lord and give us his help and graces. (This testimony was written in 2005 after the death of Don Giussani on February 22, 2005)