Stigmatine priests celebrate Feast Day of their founder St Gaspar Bertone
By Francis James Kachule Junior
The Stigmatine Priests celebrated Feast Day of their founder St. Gaspar Bertone with a high mass on Sunday 14th June 2026 at the Holy Trinity Matawale Catholic Parish in the Diocese of Zomba marking 173 years anniversary of Bertone’s departure to eternity. Bertone died on Sunday 12th June 1853 and this year this day fell on Friday hence the deliberate shift of the event to Sunday to accord the faithful an attendance opportunity.
In his homily Fr. Dave Thawapo, reminded the faithful that Christ is illuminating the way for the homeless and all in torment, unshackling us from the bondage of Satan.
St Gaspar Bertone
“The Israelites turned their backs on God thus switching to idolatry and He sent descendants of Jacob to them for conversion. Paul tells us that Jesus gave up His life for the salvation of mankind. He called the twelve disciples and entrusted them with steering God’s flock,” Fr. Thawapo said, further reminding the congregants in the jam-packed church that The Catholic Church has a solid foundation, it being the only congregation on earth that has never been shaken for 2026 years since the ascension of Jesus.
Fr. Thawapo, who is from Mpiri Parish in the Diocese of Mangochi, was ordained a priest on 28thJuly 2018 at the Holy Trinity Matawale Parish by Rt. Rev. George Desmond Tambala, OCD, the then Bishop of Zomba. He was sent to the Archdiocese of Dodoma in Tanzania where he is a Parish Priest and Youth Chaplain and was on an annual vacation during the Bertoni Feast event.
Part of the events of the day
There is also Fr. Luka from Mpiri Parish who too is serving in the same Dodoma Archdiocese. Currently, there are 10 Malawian Stigmatine priests serving in Malawi and in other African countries in the Province of The Most Holy Redeemer in Sub-Saharan Africa, which Malawi is a member.
The first Malawian Stigmatine was Fr. Fabiano Muliyafrom the Diocese of Zomba, who was ordained in 1998 and succumbed to cancer in 2021. The others are: Fr. David Augustus Kalyosi, the current parish priest at Matawale who was ordained on 24th June 2004 and his curate (parochial vicar) is Fr. Patrick Phiri from Mlombozi Parish in the Diocese of Zomba; Fr. Harry Kalonga now in Rome, Italy from the Archdiocese of Lilongwe; Fr. Samuel Kasawala from Mlombozi Parish and Fr Thomson Umali from Balaka Parish, ordained in November 2021, both are now in the Archdiocese of Pretoria in South Africa. There are also some more Malawian Stigmatine seminarians in various stages of formation in South Africa.
Gaspar Bertone was born on 9th October,1777 in Verona-Italy. His parents were Francisco Bertone and Brunora Ravelli. Born of a Christian family, following the good tradition of his time, he was baptized the following day by his uncle Fr. James Ravelli in the Church of the St. Paul in Campo Manzo, Verona.
His mother Brunora was a devoted Catholic and she played a very important role in implanting the seed of faith in the life of the young Gaspare. However, he lost his only sister Matilda at the age of nine and from that moment he remained the only child of his parents. He was sent to St. Sebastian school, which was run by the Jesuits but after the suppression was run by the municipality. As a young boy Gaspare grew in faith and at the age of 11 received his first Community which left unforgettable experience of mystical union in his life and he recalled this this experience later in his spiritual journal.
Priests, Sisters and Christians were part of the celebrations
At the age of 18, Gaspare joined the Major seminary to study theology in response to his call to priesthood. He studied theology as an external student. However, within the first year of his studies, Verona was invaded by the French troops and eventually this period of instability went on for two decades. In this period of instability, the young Gaspare motivated by charity, committed himself to helping the sick people in the hospital. At the end of his theological studies, at the age of 23,on 20th September 1800, Gaspare Bertoni was ordained as a Priest of the Diocese of Verona. He got ordained at the time the society was undergoing serious social problems caused by the French upheavals.
The next pastoral ministry that Fr Gaspare Bertoni was given in 1808, is to be a spiritual director to a community of St Joseph Convent where he met the two foundresses to be Saint Magdalena of Canossa (Founder of the Order of Canosian Sisters – present in the Diocese of Mangochi and Archdiocese of Lilongwe. It is an Order in which St. Josephine Bakhita of Khartoum, Sudan was its first African nun) and blessed Leopoldina Naudet, the foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family.
It became clear in the mind of Fr Gaspare Bertoni, to start the Cogregation on 4th November 1816, together with Fr Giovanni Maria Marani and Brother Paolo Zanoli, and moved to the house near to the Church dedicated to the Stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi – Fr Michelango Gramego joined them after one month.
Fr Gaspare did not enjoy a life of good health. Almost half of his earthly life, he remained in poor health. In spite of his health condition, he continued to give an example of patience and total abandonment in God. Even when he was grounded in his sick bed, he continued to give counselling to many people who came to see him. In his years of suffering, he underwent three hundred operations on his right leg without anesthesia, of which he endured the pain with patience, a true school of the Cross, learning self-emptying.
Fr Gaspare died on Sunday 12th June 1853. On 1st November, 1989, Fr Gaspare Bertoni was canonized by Pope John Paul II, indeed an exemplary life not only for his sons but for the entire Church.
Following the events of the day
The Pioneer Stigmatines from Sacred Heart province – Verona Italy, arrived in South Africa on 9th November 1960 at the invitation of Archbishop John Garner of Archdiocese of Pretoria. Having agreed on the terms and conditions of the contract for taking the mission the “ad experimentum”, an agreement was signed in 1951. It was signed between Monsignor John Garner Archbishop of Pretoria and Fr. Alessio De Marchi, Provincial Superior of Sacred Heart for seven years.
The first four Stigmatines to pioneer this mission were Frs. Darfo Wegher (1898-1980), Lino Inama (1911-1996), and Prino Carnovalli (1910- 1981). These three were experienced and seasoned missionaries who had been to China and Thailand for many years before and Brother Giuseppe Moderna (1919-1991), his first time to be a missionary.
In 1967 another group went to Ivory Coast. The Stigmatine missionaries started receiving the African candidates coming from different cultural backgrounds, Lesotho, Botswana and South Africa as countries having the same ethnic groups as witnessed by the first ordained African Stigmatine Fr. Bernard Rakeketsi, ordained in 1991, from Lesotho.
The vocation promoters went beyond to welcome aspiring young Africans from other countries in the 1990’s such as Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Congo and Malawi and in recent years candidates from Kenya and Uganda have been accepted in the formation programmes. In 2015 the Province of The Most Holy Redeemer for Sub-Saharan Africa was erected handing over leadership to the African Stigmatines with the first African as Vice Provincial, Fr. Patrick Tseko Rakeketsi.
To spice up the event, there was a choral showpiece immediately after luncheon with 10 of the 16 parish choirs showcasing their choral artistry, comprising the children’s, youth and seniors’ categories from all the parish’s four churches. St. Gaspar Bertone choir of Matawale carried the day with their scintillating performance – leaving the audience dumbfound – prompting Fr. David Kalyosi to show plaudits on the outfit imploring the choirs to inculturate and upgrade the songs to sound more mature.
Christians came in large numbers
“We all sat here in this Church this afternoon to appreciate our choristers’ artistry in singing for the Lord. Thus, perfecting our Catholic liturgy, honouring our founder Gaspar Bertone in exalting The Lord’s name. I urge you all to infuse these songs with more cultural elements, by adding a local touch, and even make them danceable in tandem with the Catholic Church’s Constitution Doctrine on Sacred Liturgy –“Sacrosanctum Concilium” and Pastoral Constitution of The Church in the Modern World – “Gaudium et Spes”. The Vatican Council II Post Conciliar documents,” Fr. Kalyosi mused.
The choirs were requested to perform two hymns; one from the Catholic Hymn Book and the other – specially composed in honour of Gaspar Bertone. Preceding the Feast Day, was the Gaspar Bertone week which ran from Monday 8th to Saturday 13th June, where priests took turns in narrating Bertone’s biography and way of life for the Stigmatines.
The faithful were consequently accorded an opportunity for questions and comments regarding the presentations thus unearthing a multitude of issues that sounded a bit oblique to the faithful and plausible responses given out by the presenting priests.
A day to remember
The Holy Trinity Matawale Catholic Parish was officially consecrated by His Lordship George Desmond Tambala, OCD on 9th December 2017.
It is composed of 3 outstations, a parish church and rectory with approximately 10,000 parishoners, 77 small Christian communities and two primary schools (St. Montfort Chiluwe and St.Mary’s Namikhate).
The Stigmatines are assisted by The Nigerian Innocentian Sisters, who arrived in November 2019, an order founded by Fr.Chrysogonus Uche Okorie, OCD (Order of The Carmelites Discalced) in 2006 from Orlu Diocese in Imo State in Nigeria.
They run the Innocentian Care Centre, a child care institution with a programme on reintegration of vulnerable children both at institutional and community settings, which runs in parallel with the youth vocational skills training programmes in tailoring and fashion designing and catering. Currently, they have 37 children under their care with eight youths recently graduated in tailoring.
