Saints Be Praised, Holy Bones Hit Road

The Age

Friday May 9, 2008

Carolyn Webb

TIERNAN Doherty is preparing for a national tour to appeal to youth.

He's not a rock star; he's a Catholic priest from the little-known Passionist order but, like Jimmy Barnes, his aim is to inspire veneration.

In the lead-up to World Youth Day in Sydney on July 15, Father Doherty will chaperone the relics - slivers of bone - of three saints from the Basilica of St John and St Paul in Rome.

Yesterday, Father Doherty drove them to Melbourne and handed them to Father John Pearce, the Passionist's Australian head, at the office of tour sponsor Le Pine Funerals.

They will "stay" at the Passionists' Holy Cross monastery in Templestowe until the tour of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia next month.

All three of the saints were Italian. Like rock stars, they all died young. Two of them have been linked to controversy - albeit not of their making.

Gabriel Possenti, whose firearms skills were said to have saved a village from marauders in 1862, was adopted long after his death by the US gun lobby.

But Father Pearce, of St Paul Apostle in Endeavour Hills, says this is a fable. He had been a hunter, but guns were common in Italian villages to shoot pigs. St Gabriel is, in fact, a patron saint of youth and seminarians.

Maria Goretti died horribly - in 1902, age 11, after telling her attacker she would rather die than submit to rape. Until the 1960s her story was a model of purity in Australian Catholic schools. But feminists have said her martyrdom reinforces the adage of women being "better dead than raped".

St Gemma Galgani died of tuberculosis aged 25 in 1903. She had suffered meningitis and cared for her seven siblings when their parents died.

Father Doherty said all three were human but heroic, and their stories could teach today's youth to survive hardships.

The metre-long reliquary of this tour (it's closed; you can't see the bones) was carved from Tasmanian blackwood by the same casket maker who made the coffin of the Unknown Soldier in Canberra.

The tour will include services, as well as visits to schools, retirement homes and convents.

GABRIEL POSSENTI

After a youth dedicated to theatre and chasing women, he dedicated his life to God and began studying with the Passionist order. An excellent marksman, he reputedly saved the village of Piedmont from Garibaldi?s marauders in 1860. Died of tuberculosis at 23. Canonised in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV. Patron of youth and seminarians.

MARIA GORETTI

Stabbed to death in 1902, aged 11, after rejecting the sexual advances of a neighbour in the Italian village of Ferriere. Died the following day, having forgiven her attacker. Declared a saint and patron of modern youth in 1950 by Pope Pious XII. Her attacker, who became a devout man after getting out

of jail, attended her canonisation.

GEMMA GALGANI

Born in 1878 near Lucca, Italy, she brought up her seven siblings when their parents died. Was visited by mystical experiences throughout her life, including stigmata ? sores corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus. Died of tuberculosis in 1903. Made a saint in 1940 by Pope Pious XII. Patron saint of students and pharmacists.

© 2008 The Age

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