Page 151 - Reflections on St. Joseph

to offer, vocations to the new Congregation, and of the first four who joined the community
(they joined in brotherhood, according to the expression of the Founder), three of them came
from the Michelerio itself: Biamino Pietro who had grown up at the Michelerio where he was
the head tailor, Vincenzo Franco, and Giuseppe Luigi Rey. Only Giorgio Medico was found by
Marello, and he was the only one of the first four who persevered.

14 – The conclusion, on the level of history, can be the following: if for the Company of St. Joseph
there were no great developments on the level of lay organization, there was a development,
unexpected at the beginning, but a true one, on the spiritual and formative level. The most
important development then was the Congregation of the Oblates of St. Joseph, which can be
said to be the most beautiful and long lasting fruit of the Company of St. Joseph, thought up by
the Founder in 1872, and later transformed in 1878 into a Company of a new kind, still lay in
the beginning, but enriched by the new spiritual and religious improvements which were well
under way in the heart of Marello in those years, most of all after the death of his father,
Vincenzo, on May 17, 1873.

15 – If then we move from the historical to the spiritual level, we can come to a second
conclusion and that is that the Congregation of the Oblates of St. Joseph was born from the
fundamental stump of Eucharistic devotion, a devotion which Fr. Marello cultivated in the
Church entitled in the name of Jesus, remembering that at that time such a title was linked to
that of the Sacred Heart and that the month of January, in which the celebration of the Feast of
the Holy Name of Jesus took place, was also the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. From this
comes the devotion to the Sacred Heart which the Founder passed on to the Congregation and
which was demonstrated right from the beginning with liturgical and devotional celebrations
centered around the Eucharist. We recall the Eucharistic processions in the Mother House on
the Feast of the Sacred Heart and the adorations which continued in the church of Santa Chiara
as well, which later became the Shrine of St. Joseph.

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Reflections on st. joseph