Gaspare del Bufalo

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Gaspare del Bufalo
Statue of St Gaspare del Bufalo, Collegio Preziosissimo Sangue , Rome

Gaspare del Bufalo (born January 6, 1786 in Rome , † December 28, 1837 in Rome) is the founder of the Congregation of Missionaries of the Precious Blood (CPPS). He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.

Life path

Ordained a priest in 1808, Gaspare del Bufalo, although a canon , worked as a popular missionary. Because of his pastoral and socio-political commitment, he was sometimes attacked.

Between 1809 and 1810, after Napoleon Bonaparte occupied Rome, del Bufalo refused to swear an oath of allegiance to Pope Pius VII and the Catholic Church . (“I am not allowed, I cannot, I do not want”, was his laconic comment.) He followed the fate of his Pope and was first forced into exile in Piacenza and then imprisoned in Bologna , Imola and Lugo . Only after four years could he return to Rome; there he worked again for the renewal of faith in the people and clergy of the Papal States.

“He reconciled warring families and stood up for the wild brigands. These were families, but mostly men, who fled Napoleon's military service to the mountains and lived there from assaults, looting and blackmail. Thanks to his struggle with the Pope and the Curia in Rome, an entire city - the 'robber's nest' Sonnino - was not burned down. "

In 1815 Gaspare del Bufalo founded the Order of Missionaries of the Precious Blood as people's missionaries and in 1834 supported the founding of the Congregation of the Adorers of the Blood by Maria de Mattias .

The veneration of the “Precious Blood of Christ” promoted by him is not directed towards wonders of the wafers or blood relics, but rather towards the Eucharistic figures . The Feast of the Precious Blood , which was extended to the Church as a whole in 1849 and celebrated on July 1, was abolished as a feast for the whole Church as a duplication of Corpus Christi in the course of the liturgical reform. It remained in the order.

Gaspare del Bufalo died on December 28, 1837 during a cholera epidemic in Rome and was buried in the church of Santa Maria in Trivio . On December 18, 1905 he was beatified and on June 12, 1954 by Pope Pius XII. canonized . His confessor was Vincenzo Pallotti , also a people's missionary, founder of the Association of the Catholic Apostolate , the Pallottines and the Pallottine Sisters .

The congregation he founded has branches in Europe , the USA, Central and South America (e.g. Brazil with the well-known Indian bishop Erwin Kräutler ), Tanzania and India . In Germany, the St. Kaspar high school was named after him.

Works

  • Scritti spirituali di san Gaspare del Bufalo (1786-1837) fondatore dei Missionari del Preziosissimo Sangue . Edited by Beniamino Conti. Rome 1995 ff.
  • Epistolario di San Gaspare del Bufalo, fondatore dei Missionari del Preziosissimo Sangue . Edited by Beniamino Conti, 10 vols., Rome 1986–1993.

literature

Web links

Commons : Gaspare del Bufalo  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biography on the website of the religious order ( Memento of July 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Bufalo, Gaspare del
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bufalo, Caspar del; Bufalo, Kaspar del
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Founder of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1786
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome
DATE OF DEATH December 28, 1837
Place of death Rome