Our bishop is a Rogationist. I had never heard of them. Can you tell me something about them and their founder?
The Rogationists of the Heart of Jesus are a religious order of priests and brothers founded by St Hannibal Mary di Francia (1851–1927) on 16 May 1897. The word Rogationist, by the way, comes from the Latin verb rogare, which means to pray or beseech.
The spirituality of the order is centred on Jesus’ words: “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest” (Mt 9:37-38; Lk 10:2). The Rogationists have the mission of praying for vocations and of propagating this prayer worldwide. In addition to the traditional vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, they take a fourth vow of beseeching God for vocations.
Their daily life combines Eucharistic adoration and prayer with active social work. Their social works include orphanages, healthcare centres, schools for the deaf and dumb, technical-vocational schools, scholarship programs for poor children, centres for professional management and centres for relief and assistance. They also serve in parishes. They are working in more than thirty countries and came to Australia in 2015. Here they have parishes in the dioceses of Melbourne and Sandhurst.
Their founder, St Hannibal, or Annibale, was born in Messina, Italy, on 5 July 1851. His father Francis was a knight of the Marquises of St Catherine of Jonio, Papal Vice-Consul and Honorary Captain of the Navy. His mother, Anna Toscano, also belonged to an aristocratic family. The third of four children, Hannibal lost his father when he was only fifteen months old. That sad experience made him deeply sensitive to the plight of children who have lost parents and it had a great influence on his life and educational system.
In childhood he developed such a great love for the Eucharist that he was allowed to receive Communion daily, something quite exceptional at that time. He was only seventeen when, at prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament, he was given the revelation of the “Rogate”, the command to pray. It made him feel deeply that vocations in the Church come only through prayer. Later he found that such prayer was commanded by Jesus himself when he said: “Pray [“Rogate”] therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest”. These words became the primary goal to which he dedicated his entire life.
He immediately responded by placing himself at the service of God. He entered the seminary and was ordained a priest in 1878. A few months before his ordination, an encounter with an almost blind beggar led to his great love for the poor and orphans. With the encouragement of his bishop, he went to live in a poor ghetto and dedicated himself to the redemption of its inhabitants. In 1882 he started orphanages, emphasising the human and spiritual welfare of the children and placing them under the patronage of St Anthony of Padua.
To extend this work all over the world, he founded the Daughters of Divine Zeal in 1887 and the Rogationists in 1897. Both institutions were canonically approved in 1926. He also instituted the Pious Union of Evangelical Rogation to promote prayer for vocations by the whole Church.
St Hannibal had a reputation for holiness even during his lifetime. When he died in Messina on 1 June 1927, people were saying, “Let us go to see the sleeping saint”. Pope St John Paul II beatified him on 7 October 1990 and canonised him on 16 May 2004. He called him the “authentic forerunner and zealous master of the modern pastoral care for vocations”.
On 7 July 2010 Pope Benedict XVI blessed a marble statue of St Hannibal, which was placed in an external niche of St Peter’s Basilica.
