REBUSCHINI, ENRICO, BL.

Mystic, priest of the Order of Clerics Regular, Servants of the Sick (camillians); b. Apr. 28, 1860, Gravedona on Lake Como, Piedmont, Italy; d. May 10, 1938, Cremona, Lombardy, Italy. Although Enrico was born into a wealthy family, he was always sensitive to the needs of the poor. When his father opposed his priestly vocation, Enrico submitted. He enrolled at the University of Pavia, but found its anticlerical atmosphere intolerable. Remaining docile to his father's wishes, Enrico entered military service, studied accounting, then joined his brother-in-law's silk factory for two years. No longer able to dismiss his vocation, he attended the Pontifical Gregorian University at Rome until he fell gravely ill. Upon his recovery, he engaged in rigorous asceticism in order to give himself totally to God. He entered the Camillians, Servants of the Sick, at Verona (1887) and was ordained (1889) by the future Pope Saint pius x. He was the hospital chaplain at Verona (1891–99), then assigned to that position in Cremona. He administered the new clinic at Cremona (1903–37), and, for the last 11 years of his life, he was superior of the community. Pope John Paul II, who beatified Rebuschini on May 4, 1997, noted his "extraordinary love for the Eucharist and constant devotion to the sick and suffering" (beatification homily).

Bibliography: l. miglioli, Il messaggio d'amore di padre Enrico Rebuschini (Milan 1969). Acta Apostolicae Sedis (1997):599. L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, no. 29 (1995): 5.

[k. i. rabenstein]