Pio Alberto Del Corona :A biography

Alberto Del Corona was born on 5th July 1837 in Livorno in the popular quarter of the city called “Venezia”. His parents, Giuseppe Del Corona and Ester Bucalossi, were well to do merchants in the shoemaking trade. He was baptized in Livorno’s Cathedral on 8th July of the same year with the names of Alberto Francesco Filomeno. Alberto was the fourth and last child. His mother died in 1839 when he was barely two years old. Little or nothing is known of his early years except through a letter stating that he spent some time in Tremoleto (in the Diocese of St Miniato) living with an old couple of shoemakers and that his own sister acted as a mother to him.

In his youth he became very keen on music which he always loved and enjoyed, but never managed to study properly; he was not very good at studying Mathematics either. At the age of ten he became an external pupil of the “Barnabites of St. Sebastian College and was taught Classics and Religious Piety for five and half years. He became so passionate about learning to the point that it was like taking his life away if could not carry on studying.

He took his First Holy Communion on 16th April 1851 at the Church of the Barnabites. He showed then such a deep devotion for the Eucharist that was to characterise his future spirituality for the rest of his life. At the age of fourteen he enrolled as an “aspirant” with the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul and engaged himself in the duties of providing subsidies to poor families and the teaching of Catechism at evening classes in the Dominican Church. He received high praise for carrying out such duties by Blessed Frederic Ozanam when he came to Livorno in 1853.

He became an associate member of the Dominican Third Order between 1851 and 1854 when Father Domenico Verda was Prior of the Convent of St. Catherine and Father Costanzo Mori was its Curate.

He had an extremely vivacious temperament and a versatile mind. Since his childhood he was inclined to religious piety and Church matters. In his home he would go to any extent to build a pulpit or a platform and even climbed on wardrobes to preach !! His greatest delight was to listen to the Word of God in church. He listened to sermons as if in a trance,
his eyes fixed on the preacher and was thereafter able to repeat each sermon he had heard word by word.
 

As his religious vocation became stronger, Alberto took his final decision while at the Marian Sanctuary of Montenero near Livorno. He was uncertain as to the choice between the Barn bites and the Dominicans, but chose the latter because of his devotion to St. Catherine of Siena and for being greatly attracted by the Dominican style of life which was at once monastic and apostolic as well as being devoted to prayer, study and preaching.
 

He was encouraged in this step by his friend Ugo Becherini who left Livorno on 27th May 1854 to enter the priesthood at San Marco with the name of Lodovico. During the last days of November of the same year, and at the age of seventeen, Alberto joined the Convent of San Marco in Florence as a postulant. Whilst he was at first very happy to leave his paternal home, nevertheless nature got the better of him and shed many tears during the first eight days in the Convent.

On 1st February 1855, on the eve of the Purification and after Vespers, he took the religious Dominican habit with the name of Pio Tommaso. On 3rd November 1859 he declared his Religious Profession. Due to his early age, he was given a 21 months’ dispensation as required by Tuscan Leopoldine laws. This was most unusual, but the dispensation was granted because of “Father Pio Del Corona being a young man of exceptional intellectual ability and exemplary conduct”.

Having already completed his classical education with the Barnabites Fathers he continued his studies with courses on philosophy and theology and on 20th November 1859 he graduated to “Doctor”. On 12th February 1860, when he was just 23, he celebrated his first Mass in the Church of San Marco in Florence.

Father Pio Alberto was immediately charged with undertaking the teaching of Philosophy, Theology and Languages. His pupils at San Marco were not only local but came from outside Florence and many of them became famous in their own right. Amongst the first were Father Ambrogio Luddi who was later appointed Bishop of Assisi and Monsignor Donato Velluti-Zati who became the titular Archbishop of Patrasso. Right from his early years of priesthood he showed remarkable qualities as an orator and a writer. He preached “The Advent” in Florence Cathedral and published “Elevations on the Eucharist” and “The four foundations of happiness”.

From 1872 to 1874 he acted as Prior of San Marco and, after the expulsion of the Religious Order, he devoted himself to rescuing the Convent of San Domenic of Fiesole which was eventually re-purchased and opened once again on 10th November 1879.

During a meeting with Mrs Elena Bonaguidi in 1869 he was inspired to initiate a project after reading the life of Saint Paola of Rome (347-404). He decided to establish a religious community which would reflect the one founded by the Saint herself on the Aventino hill near Rome. Such project came to fruition on 12th November 1872 after receiving the approval from Father Vincent Jandel, the Superior General of the Order, and a new small community was opened at Villa Nuti in Via San Marta in Florence.

Between 1875 and 1878 a new and larger Monastery was built in Via Bolognese and dedicated to the “Holy Spirit”. On 28th October 1878 the first ten Tertiaries were received and invested into the Religious Order by the founder himself. During the first few years the new Monastery (which was beginning to be known as “Asylum”) continued to enjoy the approval of Pope Blessed Pius IX who assigned its spiritual direction to Monsignor Pio Del Corona (Appointed Bishop in 1875) and allowed him to visit the Monastery every two months. On 21st June 1881 the new Monastery Chapel was completed and was later solemnly consecrated by Monsignor Pio himself on 7th June 1906. On 5th September 1912, the Asylum Community, which had been until then under the jurisdiction of the “Ordinary of Florence”, was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Dominican Order.

Father Pio Alberto had been appointed Titular Bishop of Draso in November 1874 by Pope Pius IX and additionally, though in rather delicate circumstances, as Assistant to Monsignor Annibale Barabesi the then Bishop of San Miniato. As far as the Italian Authorities were concerned, Monsignor Barabesi was seen as the Titular Bishop of San Miniato and as such he lived in the Bishop’s Palace and received a State salary. However, as far as the Church was concerned, Monsignor Barabesi was a deposed Bishop whilst Monsignor Pio, in his capacity as Assistant, enjoyed the full authority of the Bishopric of San Miniato in spite of not living in the official residence and not receiving a State salary. On 3rd January 1875 Monsignor Pio was consecrated Bishop in the Church of San Apollinare in Rome and officially took up his new post in San Miniato on 18th January 1875. He soon gained everyone’s respect and in an official Brief issued on 3rd Febraury 1875 Pope Pius IX praised him for his prudence and charitable conduct.

 

Mgr. Pio on pastoral visit in the country of your dioceses. A silver tray giving by S. Miniato’s Population to Mgr. Pio, sign of intense affectation that immediately was established between the Sheppard and his supporters

 

During his years as a Bishop he paid innumerable pastoral visits to the hundred or so Parishes in his Diocese with pleasing results. He paid particular attention to the training of the clergy and succeeded in re-opening the Seminary where he personally taught new disciplines. During this period he also published a number of works which included “Little Summa Theologica”; “The gold chain (Catena aurea)”; The Misteries of Jesus Christ”; “Histories and Evangelical doctrines”. All of these works were rich in Doctrinal and religious Piety.
In 1887 he preached the Lent sermons in San Miniato and consecrated the Diocese to the Sacred Heart accomplishing great success in the process. From time to time he would address Pastoral Letters, full of holy teachings, to the clergy and parishioners alike and preached his Mission throughout the Diocese inspiring enthusiasm wherever he went. He paid visits to prisons and hospitals and often engaged prisoners into attending spiritual courses.
 

He held religious courses in San Tommaso D’Aquino (Aquinas) College which had been established in San Miniato in 1885 by Father V. Bandecchi. He was also greatly interested in the spiritual and intellectual well being of the young lay students (not Seminary students or Friars) and when the College closed down Monsignor Pio, although not obliged to do so, carried on giving it financial support virtually until his own death. After the death of Bishop Monsignor Barabesi in 1897 and in spite of his initial refusal and much to the delight of the entire Diocese, he was appointed to the Titular Seat of Bishop of San Miniato from that of Draso. He was finally recognised by the Italian State Authorities as 18th Bishop of San Miniato. In 1899 he was appointed Assistant to the Papal See and on 18th January 1900 he celebrated his Episcopal Silver Jubilee, again to the great delight of all the Diocese.
 

On 4th August 1906, while on a visit to “the asylum” on the occasion of Saint Dominic’s feast day, he showed the first severe symptoms of disease of the liver from which he never recovered. Coupled with this he suffered a near total blindness and he requested to be exonerated from the onerous duties of managing his Diocese and asked to be allowed to choose the retirement’s cloister, San Domenico di Fiesole as his final resting home as he wished to prepare himself for death in the tranquillity of the cloister.

Pope Pius IX accepted his resignation and relinquished all of his responsibilities and on 14th September 1906 appointed Monsignor Pietro Maffi, Archbishop of Pisa (later Cardinal), Administrator of the Diocese of San Miniato. Later on in 1908, after the appointment of Monsignor Carlo Falcini as the new Bishop of San Miniato, Monsignor Pio was appointed to the Titular Archbishop of Sardica.

From 1906 to 1912 Monsignor Corona divided his time between the Convent of San Domenico di Fiesole and L’Asilo (Asylum, the Monastery of his sisters). Since he could not enjoy the pleasure of reading and writing because of his blindness he doubled his time spent in prayer and meditation. In 1908 he underwent a cataract operation and was thus able to resume writing and publishing other works.

His life in the cloisters of San Dominic stood out for its keen observance of every rule and for the great example he gave everyone. On 3rd November 1909 he celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his religious life. On 12th February 1910 he celebrated 50 years of priesthood. On both occasions he received innumerable good wishes and congratulations from all quarters including a very precious autograph from the Pope. Both the Convent of San Domenico and the asylum vied between each other to celebrate his Golden Anniversary Mass and planned the event in great detail, but Monsignor Pio quietly withdrew himself from all festivities and retreated for three days in the Passionists Convent near Galluzzo.

In spite of his deteriorating health, on 18th February 1912, Monsignor Del Corona decided to start preaching the Spiritual Exercises to the nuns of L’Asilo. However, due to increasingly high fever, he was forced to stop after six days. Hoping for an improvement to his health he decided to return to the more salubrious air of San Domenico. This last attempt to regain strength proved to be futile and the continuous worsening of his condition forced him to return to L’Asilo on 29th July, the very place he had chosen to spend his last days.
On 15th August 1912, the very day that the Church celebrates the Assumption of the Virgin Mary to heaven and on the date that he himself had foretold, he left this life for another and better one.
 

He was buried in the cemetery of Soffiano near Florence, but his body was later translated to the Underground Crypt of the Asylum Church where he now rests.
 

 

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