From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Happiness   
      
   "Since happiness is nothing but the enjoyment of the Supreme Good, and   
   since the Supreme Good is above us, we cannot be happy unless we rise   
   beyond ourselves. Since we cannot reach above ourselves in our own   
   strength, we must be helped by supernatural strength, lifted up by a   
   higher power that stoops to raise us. However much we structure our   
   inner lives and make progress, it does us no good unless our efforts   
   are accompanied by help from on high. Divine aid is available for   
   those who seek it with a devout and humble heart; this is done by   
   fervent prayer.”   
   --St. Bonaventure   
      
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   30 August – Blessed Giovanni Giovenale Ancina CO   
      
    (1545–1604)   
    Bishop of Saluzzo, member of the Oratory of St Philip Neri, Scholar,   
   Musician and Composer, renowned Preacher Doctor of Medicine. Commonly   
   known as Blessed Juvenal Ancina. He served in the Oratorians as a   
   simple priest for around two decades prior to his Episcopal   
   appointment which he attempted to elude for five months before   
   submitting to Pope Clement VIII and accepting the Papal appointment.   
   He entered his Diocese several months later where he became noted for   
   his charitable work with the poor and his efforts to better implement   
   the reforms of the Council of Trent. He was born on 19 October 1545 at   
   Fossano, Piedmont, Italy and died by poisoning on 30 August 1604 aged   
   59. Patronages – Fossano and the Diocese of Saluzzo.   
      
   Of all the saints and beati of the Oratory, it is Giovanni Juvenal   
   Ancina who had the privilege of a personal acquaintance with the   
   Founder and Patron, St Philip Neri. He was born in Fossano in late   
   1545, the eldest of four children. His early years were devoted to   
   study and especially study of medicine, which became his chosen   
   profession after the death of his father. Throughout his early life he   
   and his brother Giovanni Matteo, who also became an Oratorian, were   
   conspicuous for their delight in religion--none of St Philip’s   
   reticence about ‘building little altars’ here.   
      
   He became an accomplished musician and man of letters. His talents and   
   interests coupled with his various connections led him to a wide range   
   of career options which included a stint as a Professor of medicine at   
   the Turin college. After his father died he attended a Padua college   
   where he wrote the Latin poem “The Naval Battle of the Christian   
   Princes” in 1566 and dedicated this to the Doge of Venice Girolamo   
   Priuli. The death of Pope Pius V in mid-1572 saw him recite an ode in   
   public in the late Pontiff’s honour while making the accurate   
   prediction that the next pope would title himself as “Gregory.” His   
   mother died while he was in Turin in 1569 and in 1572 the Order of   
   Saint Augustine invited him to attend their provincial chapter at   
   Savigliano.   
      
   He first became a Doctor and then in 1574 accompanied Count Federigo   
   Madrucci to Rome as the count’s personal Doctor. It was there in Rome   
   that Ancina attended the theological lectures that Cardinal Robert   
   Bellarmine gave and the two became quick friends and soon Juvenal   
   began his studies in theology under St Robert Bellarmine at the Roman   
   College. When he took the theological examination required of   
   candidates for the episcopacy, Pope Clement VIII called him the best   
   prepared candidate he had ever heard of. Even Baronius, an   
   intellectual heavyweight in his own right, called Ancina “a new St   
   Basil.”   
      
   Once in Rome, Ancina’s search to deepen his faith and to discern his   
   vocation brought him to St Philip’s Oratory in 1576. He wrote to his   
   brother Giovanni Matteo that he “felt urged above all to humility.”   
   Philip was a great discerner of souls and he took his time nurturing   
   Ancina’s vocation to the Oratory. In 1578 both Ancina brothers entered   
   the Oratory; on 9May 1582, Giovenale was Ordained Priest and Matteo   
   Deacon.   
      
   Juvenale Ancina became known for his preaching and teaching in the   
   Oratory; his impressive handwritten theology lessons are still largely   
   preserved. Of all of St Philip’s disciples, Ancina is said to have   
   most closely imitated his spiritual master; his devotion to Philip is   
   illustrated by the affection expressed in his many letters from   
   Naples. Philip had sent him to Naples at the request of Tarugi, who   
   was establishing a new Oratory there. Ancina served in Naples for a   
   decade with great apostolic zeal and tireless dedication. About 1595,   
   the year of Philip’s death, Ancina was recalled to Rome to replace   
   Baronius as provost. The following year, Pope Clement VIII had to fill   
   three vacant Episcopal sees and Ancina was on the short list. He   
   literally fled into the hills for five months, seeking to remain a   
   simple Oratorian Priest but he could not avoid the assignment forever.   
   In 1602, the Pope ordered him to accept assignment as Bishop of   
   Saluzzo. At least he had the consolation of being ordained Bishop in   
   the Chiesa Nuova by Cardinal Tarugi himself.   
      
   Once he arrived in Saluzzo, Ancina instituted a Diocesan Seminary,   
   made a pastoral visit of his Diocese and reached out to heretics; he   
   is credited for the conversion of a grandson of Calvin, who became a   
   Carmelite. His tenure as Bishop of Saluzzo is noted for the breadth   
   and depth of it’s accomplishments in spite of its brevity and   
   especially for his holiness and simplicity of life. He was content   
   with three to four hours’ sleep and often slept on the bare floor; he   
   wore a hair shirt and girdle and wore a coarse linen shirt over his   
   cassock while choosing coarse food. Ancina was known to sometimes   
   spend several hours in ecstatic Adoration, unaware of others around   
   him. He lived a very austere life for a Bishop, retaining only the   
   luxury of his extensive library.   
      
   Ancina made a major goal of his episcopate the implementation of the   
   directives of the recent Council of Trent. In line with this he   
   convened a gathering of the episcopate where he laid out the methods   
   of reform for both those in the priesthood and for the faithful. He   
   made arrangements to set up a religious educational institute to   
   provide a higher level of knowledge and dedication in new Priests. He   
   gave a large emphasis to the instruction of the faithful in the   
   teachings and beliefs of the faith for which he introduced the use of   
   the new Catechism that the Council of Trent had drawn up. He   
   encouraged the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.   
      
   The Bishop St Francis de Sales had a great admiration for Ancina and   
   St Francis was later to establish and join an Oratorian house in his   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)