Saint Agostino Roscelli

Agostino Roscelli (27 July 1818 – 7 May 1902), also known as Augustine Roscelli, and Augustin Roscelli, was an Italian priest who inspired social change in Genoa, Italy for children and disadvantaged women. He was canonized a saint in the Catholic Church in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. On 27 July 1818, Roscelli was born in Bargone de Casarza, in Liguria, in northern Italy. His parents, Domenico Roscelli and Maria Gianelli, had him baptized the same day out of fear that he might not survive. Despite his early health problems, Roscelli would grow into a quiet intellectual, receiving his basic education from the parish priest, Andrea Garibaldi. These times were brief however, as he would spend a large part of his childhood caring for his poor farming family's sheep in the mountains. During these solitary times, he would fill his hours with prayer. In May 1835, at the age of 17, Roscelli attended a parish mission given by a visiting priest, Antonio Maria Gianelli (parish priest of Chiavari and later bishop of Bobbio). This mission thoroughly convinced him he had a call to the priesthood, a calling that would not be easy considering the poor financial state his family was in. Despite this, he attacked the situation with prayer, which led to financial aid that allowed him to study in Genoa. One of his benefactors was Fr. Guanelli, who found him a post as a sacristan and guardian of a church attached to a girls' school. He was finally ordained on 19 September 1846. Roscelli was shortly thereafter appointed to a working-class parish, San Martino d’Albaro, in 1846. He would later move to the Church of Consolation in Genoa in 1854. As a parish priest he soon made a positive impression with his obvious zeal and austerity in life. He spent long hours in the confessional, which developed his deep concern for the youth of the area. The boys of the parish were often tempted into a life of crime, having little to no education.