Anniversary of the Restoration of the Order in Spain

 

A congregationof about 3,000 people attended a Thanksgiving Mass celebrated on 15 December inthe Holy Family Basilica in Barcelona (Spain), to commemorate the 150thanniversary of the Restoration of the Hospitaller Order in Spain, and thefoundation of the Barcelona Hospital dedicated to Saint John of God.

 

Brothers,co-workers, volunteers and benefactors of the Order had gathered to celebratethe fact that it was precisely here, in Barcelona, 150 years ago, that St Benedict Menni, aBrother of Saint John of God and the Founder of the Sisters Hospitallers of theSacred Heart of Jesus, embarked on thr work of restoring the Hospitaller Orderof St John of God. In 1867, the young Brother Benedict Menni reached Barcelonafrom Italy, at the orders of the then Superior General, Giovanni M. Alfieri, tore-establish the Order’s presence in Spain following its extinction in the wakeof the anticlerical legislation enacted in 1835. And it was in Barcelona that Father Menni founded achildren’s asylum-hospital which would later become today’s ‘Sant Joan de Déu’ Children’s Hospital.

 

The Bishop of Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Mgr Agustín Cortés, presided at the Masswhich was concelebrated by Mgr SergiGordó, the Auxiliary Bishop of Barcelona, Mgr José Luis Redrado, Titular Bishop of Ofena and Brother of St Johnof God, and Brother Jesús Etayo,the Superior General of the Order, and several other priests.

ThisProvincial Superior, Brother José LuisFonseca, delivered the welcome address to the large congregation.  



 

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