{"id":105969,"date":"2012-12-10T03:41:03","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T02:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vincentians.com\/blog\/a-short-life-of-blessed-marcantonio-durando-1801-1880-2\/"},"modified":"2016-07-10T08:48:38","modified_gmt":"2016-07-10T06:48:38","slug":"the-unedited-collection-of-letters-of-blessed-marcantonio-durando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/vincentians.com\/en\/the-unedited-collection-of-letters-of-blessed-marcantonio-durando\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unedited Collection of Letters of Blessed Marcantonio Durando"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fr. Durando never wrote a book, nor published one, except for an \u201ceducative\u201d pamphlet, written for an Institute of the Daughters of Charity at Fontanetta Po.<\/p>\n

His collection of letters, however, is a veritable \u201cmonument,\u201d and a mine of information on civil and religious life, on the spiritual direction of persons, of the dispositions of governance for the works, etc., from 1831-1880.<\/p>\n

Today his correspondence is collected in eight large volumes, typewritten, and photocopied, with an accompanying analytical index.<\/p>\n

I spent a long time working like a Carthusian, in order to transcribe the texts of the \u201coriginal\u201d letters, the notes, and the reports.<\/p>\n

They form a document of great historical importance, and not only for Vincentian studies. Among the many letters, a particular importance is found in those of the Epistolary Risorgimento<\/em>, published in the Annali Della Missione <\/em>in 1969-1978.<\/p>\n

1. The sources<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I list these with a certain order of importance:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Archives of the C.M. General Curia, Rome:<\/em> Conserves the correspondence of Blessed Durando with the Superiors General and the Italian Assistants General.<\/li>\n
  2. Archives of the Museo del Risorgimento of Turin, and the Vatican Library:<\/em> These are letters of high historic value, addressed for the most part to his brother, Giacomo, Minister of State. They embrace the period of over 30 years from 1847-1879.<\/li>\n
  3. Letters found in various archives in the Dioceses of the Piedmont region, <\/em>especially in Mondov\u00ec, Saluzzo, Fossano, etc.<\/li>\n
  4. Letters in the archives of various houses of the Congregation of the Mission:<\/em> Turin, Chieri, Mondov\u00ec, etc.<\/li>\n
  5. Letters <\/em>of individual sisters or lay people, collected by Fr. Giovanni Tonello, by the Daughters of Charity, the Nazarene Sisters, and by the Magdalens of the Marchioness of Barolo.<\/li>\n
  6. Twenty letters of Fr. Durando,<\/em> preserved and published by Fr. Vito Guarini, concerning the Secret Storm on the Vincentian Family, 1842-1843 <\/em>(attempt to separate the confreres of Italy from Paris).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I have collected as many as I could, but I do not exclude that there might be many letters still in circulation written by Blessed Durando.<\/p>\n

    2. Content<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Every little happening in the houses of the confreres was punctually reported by the Visitor to the Italian Assistant General or to the Superior General, with the frequency of about one letter per month. Thus it was for 40 years. Hundreds of figures of confreres, of Daughters of Charity, or of notable persons in the civic or the religious world, come before our eyes vividly and synthetically treated with their virtues and their defects, enthusiasms, and spiritual crises. The protagonists of civil and religious life during the Risorgimento<\/em>, mentioned by Blessed Durando, go from Pius IX to Garibaldi, from Kings Carlo Alberto and Vittorio Emmanuele II to Emperor Napoleon III, from Rosmini to Gioberti, from Msgr. Fransoni and his sad trials to Fa\u00e0 di Bruno, from the brothers Camillo and Gustavo Cavour to General La Marmora and the events in the Crimea.<\/p>\n

    Blessed Durando followed every event with a watchful eye and did not stop struggling against deleterious liberalism and the intrigues of Freemasonry.<\/p>\n

    3. Fr. Durando as a keen writer<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    The language of Fr. Durando is obviously that of his time. However, his use of language is lucid and clear: simple, legible handwriting, good punctuation, very rarely any crossing out, even though he is writing in a \u201cstream of consciousness\u201d style. Frequently we find expressions from the Piedmont regions, French expressions, and appropriate Latin citations that are part of his wit.<\/p>\n

    Of some lazy confreres, he writes: Fruges consumare nati <\/em>= born only to consume provisions!<\/p>\n

    Of a confrere who many times had promised to correct in himself a very grave defect with no success, Blessed Marcantonio sadly writes: Substantiae non mutantur! \u2026 <\/em>Potest Aetiops mutare pellem suam?<\/em> = The substance cannot be changed. Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin?<\/p>\n

    Of a superior miserly in the smallest things, he said: Ab ungue disce leonem! <\/em>=<\/strong> Judge the lion by his claws!<\/p>\n

    A confrere who was a big eater was defined as: The best teeth in the house<\/em>. Another, as secret as thunder, was called: a trumpet<\/em>! Two rival confreres in the same house: two cocks in a chicken coop<\/em>. Of another, stubborn in on his own ideas, Blessed Marcantonio writes: When he puts a nail in, there is no way to make him change it<\/em>. One time a confrere had overstepped against his own superior rather passionately. Fr. Durando commented: Let us hope that this winter’s snow will cool off such a great fire!<\/em><\/p>\n

    Of a subject not very competent to be a treasurer, Fr. Durando wrote to Paris: He is as good to be the procurer as I am to be a poet.<\/em><\/p>\n

    4. Typical expressions<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Some of the expressions from the pen Fr. Durando are quite tasty.<\/p>\n