FATHER ALBINI IN THE RANKS OF THE MIRACLE-WORKERS WHO AS APOSTLES PROCLAIMED THE WORD OF GOD

Eugene writes about Venerable Albini, whose cause of canonization is in process .

Fr. Gabrielli, parish priest at Tralonca in Corsica, came to tell me such edifying things about Fr. Albini that I asked him to send me a copy of the official report they have made. It is nothing less than a series of miracles which place this dear Father into the ranks of the miracle-workers who as apostles proclaimed the word of God at different times. I am waiting for these proceedings in order to put down the details in writing. 
The first miracles were done during the Moita mission and especially during the planting of the cross, which has become a miraculous cross to whose feet all the people come to obtain graces and healings, and God has not ceased granting them since then. We can consider this outstanding favor as the approval God wished to give our Congregation’s ministry in Corsica. That ought to be a motive for our never-ending gratitude.

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 28 February 1839, EO XX

Father André Dorval OMI tells the story:

The mission at Moïta had begun on August 11, 1836, and was to end three weeks later with the erection of a monumental cross, ten meters in height. The task posed many handling problems and risked becoming dangerous because of the nearby crowd. However, thanks to Father Albini, the installation succeeded marvelously. Canon Brandisi, an eye witness of the event, left this testimony: “The cross was enormous, and after hours of work it was only half raised. Everyone was exhausted and began to lose hope of getting it raised. The holy missionary became aware of the situation. He ran towards the cross. He stretched out his hands as if to retain it. And there it stood upright, with the base in the hole that had been prepared for it. Everyone shouted that it was a miracle, attributing it to a superhuman force. Everyone was crying for joy”  https://www.omiworld.org/anecdote/the-miracle-worker-of-corsica/

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1 Response to FATHER ALBINI IN THE RANKS OF THE MIRACLE-WORKERS WHO AS APOSTLES PROCLAIMED THE WORD OF GOD

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Obalte Associate says:

    Do we truly believe in miracles? Do we truly believe God will work for and through us when we ask and trust? I find that today’s offering invites us to look not just at Father Albini but into our own lives and the lives of those we know and love.

    Whether it was to plant an impossibly large cross or to guide his footsteps on a mountain path in the approaching night’s darkness Fr. Albini trusted God with all aspects of his life. Do we believe that?

    I think of Immaculée Ilibabiza’s recounting of the miracles that she shared in her book “Left to Tell – Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust”. Her life was filled with deep faith and trust in God; the story of how she led a group of young women through a line of soldiers who had been sent to kill her during the Rwanda Genocide.

    I look at my own life – so many miracles. They may never be told or written about but that does not lessen what they were and are. I wonder if we don’t sometimes witness them without realizing their import; there can be a tendency to sometimes brush them off and lessen what they are by saying it’s luck, or coincidence…

    With all of life being a miracle do we pass off events in our life as being just coincidental, or the way life works; or do we walk with Fr. Albini in the dark reciting our prayers, rejoicing and giving thanks?

    I choose the latter.

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