The Life of a Carthusian Monk
Dear Brothers,
A month ago we celebrated Dom Basilio's 90th birthday in a special place, in which he participated with enthusiasm and with the usual joy that he transmitted to everyone.
We will never forget the blessing we asked him for at the end of the day, which he gave us like an old father.
Dom Basilio's heart was very similar to that of our Father Bruno, of whom it was said that he always had a cheerful face, and Dom Basilio's face also shone with joy; moreover, those who were close to him knew well the maternal tenderness with which he accompanied his role as a father, just as it was said of Bruno that he showed a mother's heart alongside his father's strength.
As a young man, however, Dom Basilio did not immediately follow in Bruno's footsteps; before arriving at the Certosa, he embarked on a long priestly and pastoral journey, rooted in a deeply Christian peasant family.
He was the sixth of seven brothers and sisters; his eldest sister, Elisabetta, who entered the Daughters of St Joseph during the Second World War, died prematurely during her novitiate, having given herself to the Lord for the end of that conflict.
Dom Basilio always carried in the secret of his heart, with reverence, the memory of this total gift to the Lord.
Even as a boy he set out on his vocation, first to the school of the Comboni Missionaries, then to the minor seminary of Feltre and finally to the major seminary of Belluno, where one of his professors was Father Albino Luciani, the future Pope John Paul I, whose beatification in 2022 he was very proud of.
Ordained a priest at the age of 27, he first worked as vice-rector and professor at the minor seminary.
Four years later he was appointed parish priest, a ministry he carried out in two mountain villages in the Belluno Pre-Alps for a total of more than 15 years, a very rich pastoral experience that matured in him a very strong sense of humanity and of welcoming simple people.
However, during these years of intense pastoral life, Dom Basilio's desire to lead a more human life began to mature: the desire to lead a life completely dedicated to the Lord, "to reach with prayer and contemplation an even greater number of believers, more than can be approached in the pastoral life of a parish", was the disarming answer he gave to those who asked him the reason for his choice of monastic life.
He had contacts with monasteries in his homeland: the Camaldolese hermitage of Monte Rua, the Carthusian monastery of Vedana, the Abbey of Santa Giustina in Padua, where he attended the Institute of Pastoral Liturgy, a formation that would always make him very open and sensitive to the renewal of the Council [which had little to do with a "renewal"].
Shortly before his 45th birthday, he entered the Charterhouse of Lucca, where he successfully completed his formative journey, although his adaptation to the new way of life must not always have been easy, given his age and his previous pastoral training.
A year before his solemn profession, he was called to join the Prior as Vice-Master and, after taking solemn vows, as Vicar.
With the election of the new Prior, he was appointed Procurator, a post he held for eleven years with great generosity, competence and attention to the brothers and outsiders.
He worked hard to improve the property of the house, using his agricultural knowledge (fruit growing and... various animal farms), but he also worked to make the enclosure effective, limiting everything in the obediences that risked making the brothers lose the monastic spirit.
At the end of his service as Procurator, the General Chapter of 1999 sent him to our house to take up the post of Vicar, an experience which left a deep and positive mark on him, so much so that when he returned to Farneta as Prior in 2001, he spoke often and fondly of those two years and of the beautiful experience he had in "the house where St Bruno is".
The priorate of Farneta lasted more than thirteen years, during which he was able to transmit, also through his sometimes disarming simplicity, peace, serenity and joy in fraternal relationships.
In the autumn of 2014, the Reverend Father [= Prior General] asked him to come to Serra San Bruno to help with the rebirth of the community.
Dom Basilio immediately gave his full availability to this Charterhouse that he always carries in his heart and, despite his advanced age, he set off with enthusiasm, serenity, simplicity and determination; he would add "also with gratitude", in fact, when he arrived at the door of the monastery, as soon as he got out of the car, he knelt down to kiss the ground, that ground that he had learned to love because it had been loved and blessed by St Bruno.
He told me that the first thing he thought of when he was offered the chance to come to Serra was that San Bruno was finally fulfilling his wish to be buried next to him. And today that gift has been fully realised!
Personally, I remember those years of reconstruction with emotion: the situation was not easy, at the beginning there were only four of us, including Dom Basilio, and everything required more effort than usual, but he had the gift of being able to inspire courage and confidence in everyone.
This is perhaps the most important lesson I learned from him, he taught me that a father must pass on trust to his children and to do this he must really trust them, as Dom Basilio did with all of us.
Another very important fact is that he knew how to make the best of the path already taken by our community, respecting in the smallest detail our style and the choices made, showing that he had come to help the community as it was, not to change it to his liking.
I believe that this fundamental quality makes the prior a true "Good Shepherd".
In Serra San Bruno, Dom Basilio had many opportunities to make himself the shepherd of the people who, because of their devotion to St Bruno, had gathered around the Charterhouse.
Many understood and appreciated this, but it must also be said that many took advantage of his great generosity for their own interests.
When Dom Basilio received mercy at the General Chapter of 2019, I wanted to call him, as his vicar, but he only wanted to talk to me about the future of the house, trying as always to encourage me.
Once again, his paternity and his constant concern for the future came to the fore.
After a few months in Farneta, he finally returned to our house to live his last years in a new dimension; after so much commitment, both inside and outside the Charterhouse, he now found himself in the silence and solitude of the cell for God alone.
A dimension of tranquillity, but accompanied by some heart ailments that have become more frequent in recent months: the heart that had been beating for so many years for others and for God, in the diocesan and then Carthusian pastoral life, suddenly stopped because the Lord was calling him.
It no longer needed to beat on this earth because it will continue to beat in the personal encounter with him. And this beating will never cease.
#newsHivlmzgwxn