Saint Giovanni Battista de’ Rossi (1698–1764) Confessor — Romanae Urbis Apostolus Pauperum
I. Of His Nativity and Early Years
In the small commune of Voltaggio, set among the Ligurian hills of the Diocese of Genoa, there was born on the twenty-second day of February in the year of Our Lord 1698 a child named Giovanni Battista, the son of Carlo de’ Rossi and Frances Anfossi — parents of modest estate but of noble piety, who counted the fear of God as their truest patrimony. From his tenderest infancy the child manifested an inclination toward sacred things wholly extraordinary in one of such years: a love of silence, an aversion from the frivolities of childhood, and a singular devotion toward the Mother of God, whom he chose betimes as the patroness and guide of his soul.
At the age of ten, the Lord disposed his path through a providential occasion. A noble Genoese family, passing through Voltaggio, was so struck by the gravity and modesty of the boy that they begged his parents to permit him to accompany them to Genoa, that he might be reared in their household and instructed in letters. There, for some three years, the young Giovanni gave evidence of such virtue that his name went before him; and when his cousin, the canon Lorenzo de’ Rossi of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, learned of him, he summoned the boy to Rome — that city which, by the disposition of Divine Providence, was to be the field of his apostolate for nigh upon sixty years.
II. Of His Studies and Sacred Ordination
Arriving in the Eternal City in the year 1711, Giovanni was enrolled among the students of the Collegium Romanum of the Society of Jesus, where he applied himself with such diligence to philosophy and the sacred sciences that he was held in high esteem by his masters. Yet it was not the love of learning alone that animated him, but rather a burning desire to be made an instrument of souls. From his youth he practised severe mortifications — fasting, vigils, the discipline — to such excess that he contracted an infirmity of the falling sickness (morbus comitialis), which was to remain with him until his death, and which, as Saint Paul saith of his own stimulus carnis (2 Cor. xii. 7), served to keep him in humility before God.
So great was his desire for the priesthood, and yet so great his sense of his own unworthiness, that he was admitted to Sacred Orders only after special dispensation, his epileptic condition being canonically an impediment. He was ordained priest on the eighth day of March, 1721, in his twenty-third year. From that hour forward, the altar became the centre of his life, and the Holy Sacrifice the wellspring of all his labours.
III. Of His Apostolate in Rome
Appointed a canon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in 1737 upon the death of his cousin (a dignity he accepted with reluctance and exercised with the spirit of a servant rather than of a prelate), Don Giovanni made of Rome his cloister and of the poor his community. He laboured especially among:
The drovers and herdsmen (vaccari) who brought their beasts to the market at the Campo Vaccino, men rough of speech and long deprived of the consolations of religion. To them he preached in their own tongue, hearing their confessions in the open air and bringing them to the Sacraments.
The women of the streets, the abandoned and the fallen, for whom he obtained from the charity of the faithful the foundation of a hospice (the Ospizio di Santa Galla) where they might find refuge, instruction, and the means of penance. He was wont to say, after the manner of Our Lord toward the woman of Samaria (Ioan. iv), that none was so lost that the grace of Christ could not retrieve her.
The prisoners and the sick, whom he visited indefatigably in the carceres and hospitals of the City, hearing their confessions, consoling their last hours, and obtaining for many the grace of a holy death.
His confessional became famous throughout Rome. Penitents of every condition — cardinals and labourers, princesses and washerwomen — sought him out, drawn by his discernment of spirits and his extraordinary gentleness. He was known to spend ten, twelve, even sixteen hours daily in the sacred tribunal, refusing himself food and sleep that no soul might depart unconsoled. When asked how he could endure such labours, he answered simply: Sufficit mihi gratia Dei — “The grace of God is sufficient for me” (cf. 2 Cor. xii. 9).
IV. Of His Virtues
His poverty was apostolic. He retained nothing for himself, distributing his stipend and the alms entrusted to him with such liberality that he often went without the necessaries of life. His cassock was patched and threadbare; his table was that of the poorest mendicant.
His chastity was guarded by an austere mortification of the senses and a constant recollection of the divine presence. So great was his modesty of the eyes that those who knew him compared him to Saint Aloysius Gonzaga.
His obedience to the Holy See and to his ecclesiastical superiors was perfect and prompt. When Pope Benedict XIV, hearing of his sanctity, offered him a canonry of greater dignity at the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, he accepted only under obedience and continued to live as the humblest of priests.
His devotion to the Blessed Sacrament was the foundation of his interior life. He spent long hours before the tabernacle, and when celebrating the Holy Sacrifice his countenance was often seen transfigured with so manifest a recollection that those present were moved to tears. His devotion to the Mother of God was filial and constant; he recited the entire Rosary daily and counselled this practice to all souls under his care.
V. Of His Death and Glorification
After a life consumed in the service of the lowliest, this faithful servant of God was gathered to his reward on the twenty-third day of May in the year 1764, being sixty-six years of age. He died in the rectory of the Hospice of the Holy Trinity of the Pilgrims, attended by his penitents and the poor whom he had served. His last words, oft repeated, were the holy Name of Jesus.
His body was buried in the Church of the Trinità dei Pellegrini, where the veneration of the faithful began at once. Innumerable miracles were attested at his tomb. He was beatified by Pope Pius IX on the thirteenth day of May, 1860, and canonized by Pope Leo XIII on the eighth day of December, 1881. His feast is kept on the twenty-third day of May, the anniversary of his holy death (dies natalis).
VI. Lessons for Imitation
From the life of Saint Giovanni Battista de’ Rossi the faithful may draw these salutary considerations:
That infirmity is no impediment to sanctity, but rather, when borne in patience, becomes the very instrument by which God perfects His chosen ones. Saint John bore the falling sickness all his days; yet by it he was kept humble, and through it the power of Christ was made manifest in him (cf. 2 Cor. xii. 9).
That the apostolate of the confessional, when undertaken with charity and discernment, is among the highest of priestly works. To sit in the seat of Christ’s mercy, to bind and to loose in His name, to bring back the wandering sheep — this is to participate most intimately in the redemptive office of the Good Shepherd.
That charity toward the most despised is the surest mark of the disciple of Christ. The drovers, the prostitutes, the prisoners — these were the chosen friends of Saint John, as they were of his Master, who came non vocare iustos, sed peccatores — “not to call the just, but sinners” (Matt. ix. 13).
VII. Oratio ad Sanctum Ioannem Baptistam de Rubeis
O glorious Saint John Baptist de’ Rossi, who in the midst of the great City didst seek out the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and didst spend thy life in the labour of the confessional and the relief of the poor: obtain for us, we beseech thee, a tender compassion toward the suffering, a holy zeal for the salvation of souls, and a perfect conformity to the will of God in our infirmities. Through the merits of Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth, world without end. Amen.
Pro Studio Ulteriore
For those wishing to deepen their acquaintance with this saint and the spirit of his age, the following may be commended:
The Acta of his canonization process, preserved in the archives of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, contain extensive testimony from his contemporaries regarding his apostolic labours and supernatural gifts.
For the broader context of his ministry, the Storia di Roma of Ludovico von Pastor (particularly the volumes treating the pontificates of Benedict XIV and Clement XIII) provides invaluable background on the religious and social conditions of eighteenth-century Rome.
The Imitatio Christi of Thomas à Kempis, which Saint John carried with him constantly, illuminates the interior spirit of his life.