A married couple, Settimio and Licia Manelli, had 21 children of whom 13 were alive. Since the conversion of Settimio at the feet of St Pio of Petrelcina, at San Giovanni Rotondo, the couple shared their married life under the constant spiritual and material guidance of the holy friar Padre Pio.
For their holy and heroic virtues they have been declared by the Church as Venerable and their cause for beatification is in processing.
They narrate their eventful married life in the book “Questa è la mia Famiglia: (Padre Pio)”. Mgr Charles G. Vella has translated the book in Maltese and he says “This is a married couple open to God and to life. They may serve as a model to Maltese couples.”
The book “Din hi l-Familja Tiegħi (Patri Pio)” will be presented on Friday 25th May at 6 pm at the Holy Trinity Church, Marsa, built by the Maltese couple Balbi and is now celebrating the Centenary.
A nephew of the Venerable Manelli, FATHER SETTIMIO MARIA MANELLI, F.I. is coming to Malta for the presentation with Mgr. Charles G. Vella and Fr Alfred Scerri OFM Cap., who is the director of the “Prayer Groups of St Pio”.
Fr Settimio is the son of Pio, who with his wife had seven children, two priests and five nuns. Pio is one of the thirteen children of the saintly couple.
Another son of the couple, Padre Stefano M. Manelli, founded the “Congregation of the Franciscans of the Immaculate”, which was approved by the Holy See on June 23rd, 1990. This relatively young Congregation consists of 500 priests and many seminarians, who work in various missionary countries. Padre Stefano also founded a Congregation of Sisters and also a cloistered group of “Clarissi”. The Congregation is inspired by the rule of St Francis and the Franciscan St Maximilian Maria Kolbe, who was killed by the Nazi in a concentration camp.
Padre Stefano would have liked to come to Malta, but he is sending his nephew Padre Settimio who with his priest brother form part of the Congregation.
PADRE SETTIMIO was born in Rome in 1972 and was ordained priest on 22nd August 1996. He studied Biblical theology at the Franciscan Institute in Jerusalem and got the doctrinate in biblical studies from the Pontifical Urbaniana University in 2002. He is a lecturer in Scripture in three faculties. He was a parish priest in Rome and is presently Rector of the Seminary of the Institute at Sassoferrato (AN).
The public is invited for the presentation at the Holy Trinity Church, Marsa, on Friday 25th May at 6pm. The programme will include a concelebrated mass. At the end the blessing with an authentic relic of a glove belonging to St Pio, a gift of the Capuchins of San Giovanni Rotondo to Mgr. Charles G. Vella, will be given.
Copies of the book “Din hi l-Familja Tiegħi: (Patri Piju)” may be obtained from Fr Alfred Scerri OFM Cap. (mob. 79236714) or from the members responsible of Gruppi tat-Talb San Piju.