Are Catholic religious communities like the Passionists, down in numbers at least in our part of the world,, on their way out? Numbers don’t always predict the future. More importantly, does the community produce saints and foster holiness? That’s a lesson to learn from Blessed Lorenzo Salvi, a Passionist whose feast is June 12th.

Lorenzo Salvi was born in Rome on October 30, 1782, professed a Passionist in 1802, and ordained a priest in 1805. These dates point to difficult, unpromising times. As Lorenzo entered the Passionists, Napoleon was carrying out his campaign to create a grand new world with France and himself at its center. He saw the Catholic church, particularly the papacy, in his way and he tried to cripple the church and the popes.

Napoleon invaded the Papal States in 1787, then again in 1798 when he declared a Roman Republic and drove Pope Pius Vi into exile where he died in 1799. Napoleon also ordered religious orders like the Passionists suppressed, their religious houses closed and their members sent back to their families or wherever they could find a place for themselves. Most Passionist houses were closed for a year or more at the time.

Not a good time to join the Passionists, you would think. But Lorenzo did.

In 1802 the body of Pius VI was brought back to Rome in 1802, the year Lorenzo made his vows. Many people said then that the papacy had come to an end. The future didn’t look good.

In 1799 the new pope, Pius VII appointed Father Vincent Mary Strambi, a distinguished Passionist preacher and teacher, as bishop of Marcerati, to shore up a tottering diocese in the tottering papal states. Later, Strambi would be declared a saint. Certainly the move benefited the church, but perhaps not so much the Passionists who lost a religious deeply involved in forming their young people, like Lorenzo.

You wonder what the young man felt facing the future at a time like that.

Far from losing hope, Lorenzo’s spirit seemed to soar and his call strengthened during the Napoleonic suppression. The young priest worked to restore the church in Italy and his own congregation. Napoleon’s plans failed.

Lorenzo Salvi was a forceful preacher who had a great devotion to the Child Jesus. “Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus said. Lorenzo had the heart of a child. He believed no one can destroy God’s kingdom.

The Passionists experienced a surprising growth after the Napoleonic suppression. Lorenzo, an inspiring preacher and holy priest, was one of those leading the community into a new era.

Pray for saints like Lorenzo today. Pray that the Passionists have new recruits like him.

Lord, you granted Blessed Lorenzo Maria Salvi an intense and penetrating knowledge of the mystery of your Word made flesh through his devout contemplation of the Child Jesus. Through his intercession grant that we, too, walking in the ways of spiritual childhood, may come to eternal life in your Son. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit one God, forever and ever.