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The annual Gentili Sunday took place at St Jude's Shrine in Omeath last month. Fr Oliver Stanfield celebrated Mass in the beautiful chapel 28 September before blessing the graves of priests from the Rosminian order.
Father Aloysius (Luigi) Gentili, a native of Rome met Antonio Rosmini Serbati who accepted him as a postulant of the newly founded Institute of Charity (later becoming the Rosminian Order). He was sent to England in 1835 as a missionary where he founded new Communities and made thousands of conversions. On mission in Ireland in 1848 he contracted typhoid and died aged just 47.
Calvary in Omeath.
He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery but in conformity with the rules of the Rosminian order, that members should be laid to rest in their own cemeteries, he was taken to Omeath ninety years later following the establishment of a Province of the Order just outside the village. Today he is laid to rest in a crypt in the new chapel at the shrine with his dark mahogany coffin on display.
Speaking at the Mass Fr Stanfield said "It's good to have somebody who is a holy man, a very saintly man in our midst and there are people, as you know who come here all the time, some with great devotion to Father Luigi Gentili.
"He's a very special person for us and for Rosminians and for the community in this area as well. We are here to celebrate the Mass to acknowledge Father Luigi Gentili, and also those Rosminians who followed Father Luigi, and they're buried here in our little graveyard, here in Omeath itself. They are part of the fruits, I would say, of the work of Fr Luigi"
Fr Stanfield added that although Fr Gentili didn't live very long, he lived a very, very full life. Following the Mass Fr Stanfield walked around blessing the graves at the shrine.
