Blessed Innocenzo da Berzo

Innocenzo da Berzo (19 March 1844 - 3 March 1890), born Giovanni Scalvinoni, was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Order of Friars Minor. Scalvinoni assumed his new religious name upon his profession as a Capuchin friar. Pope John XXIII beatified him on 12 November 1961. Giovanni Scalvinoni was born on 19 March 1844 to farm-workers Pietro Scalvinoni and Francesca Poli in Niardo, (Brescia). He was baptized Giovanni. His father died of pneumonia when Giovanni was three months old in June 1844. He spent his childhood in Berzo. As a small child he had great mercy for the poor, giving generously to those who asked, even though his family was in need. In 1861 his uncle Francesco sent him to the municipal college in Lovere in the province of Bergamo and he passed with high marks. In 1864 he entered the diocesan seminary of Brescia. He was ordained to the priesthood on 2 June 1867 and held some positions, including that of vice-chancellor of the seminary, but each time he was removed because his innate shyness made it difficult to impose authority. He was assigned as the parochial vicar at the parish of Cevo in Valsaviore. In 1870 he returned to Berzo Inferiore where his duties were to act as a confessor and to direct the local primary school. During the time in the parish he found a need for solitude, prayer and penance. In 1874 he entered the Order of Friars Minor at the Annunciata Convent in the village of Borno. In 1878 he made his solemn vows and took the name of "Innocenzo of Berzo". He spent a year in Albino. Except for short assignments of preaching spiritual exercises in some convents in Lombardy, he remained at the Annunicata Convent. There he lived a life of intense abandonment, living the adage of "do good and disappear". He had a deep devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, finding his sustenance in front of the Tabernacle.