This excited and heartening letter, addressed to a dispirited Bartolomeo Ferrari, was written a little less than a year after Anthony Mary left the Vicenza mission whose primary purpose was the reform of two convents, the Reformed and the Sylvestrines. Anthony Mary vividly remembered his brief but intense work there. Admittedly his unabated enthusiastic optimism was wholly faith-filled. In fact, the actual circumstances of the mission were quite depressing.

The roughest of the two convents was that of the Reformed. Its twenty or so members were former prostitutes, homeless, penniless, often in poor health, rejected by family and friends. Some of them had shared camp life with soldiers and had lost their feminine traits. They turned defiant, saucy, and quarrelsome.

This convent, or rather, this charitable institution, was founded about 1530 by Maddalena Valmarana, the widow of Giacomo Thiene, a relative of St. Cajetan Thiene. In 1537, when Anthony Mary arrived there, the premises were small and uncomfortable. The church was bare.

When he returned to Milan toward the end of October, 1537, Anthony Mary sent Bartolomeo Ferrari to take his own place, along with a priest postulant, Lorenzo Davidico, and Fra Bono.

To encourage Ferrari, Anthony Mary reminds him of the power of the Crucified, and the example of St. Paul; moreover, he offers his steadfast and warmest personal support. No reason to feel dejected: after all, Paul was not always Paul: "at the beginning, Paul was not what he became afterward."

The Prioress, who replaced Angelic Silvana Vismara, was Domenica Battista da Sesto, the first Angelic Prioress in Milan. She was a remarkable woman, "beautiful as an angel, quite young in age, yet fully mature in judgment." The Vicar was matron Porzia Negri, sister of Angelic Paola Antonia and of Barnabite Fr. Camillo. The Mistress of Novices was Franceschina Conforti Adriani, a sort of convert herself as attested in the letter: "...if you acknowledge that you have derived benefit from evil..."

The other convent was that of the Sylvestrines. The Sylvestrines were a branch of Benedictine Sisters founded by Domitilla Thiene, a relative of St. Cajetan Thiene, in 1523. She and three other Sisters left their Benedictine St. Peter's Convent, also in Vicenza, in order to pursue a life of strict observance. They were called Sylvestrines because their convent was located near the Church of St. Sylvester. Only 12 years later, when Anthony Mary was invited to reform them, they had obviously fallen from their original fervor. Besides dressing in silk lace and similar fineries, they probably lacked a solid catechetical formation, tended to neglect the sacraments of Penance and Eucharist and otherwise disregarded a firm daily schedule of convent life. However, it seems that all they needed was the right kind of leadership. Through his inspired zeal and warm personal touch, Anthony Mary quickly turned things around. While in this letter none of the Reformed is addressed with terms of endearment, these abound for the Sylvestrines: "my sweet Paolina, my faithful Donna Lucrezia, my Doyenne, my sweet Donna Faustina... you can assure them all that I am theirs and that Jesus Crucified makes me love them very much because they are generous."

Word of Anthony Mary's success reached as far as Bologna. Here his life-long friend, Serafino Aceti da Fermo (1496-1540), dedicated a devotional book to the Sylvestrines and congratulated them for their "spiritual progress" thanks to the guidance of "my and your Father, Anthony Mary, whose presence now adorns heaven as before adorned earth..."

The intense personal involvement of Anthony Mary in Vicenza at large is shown by all the people he mentions, a year later, with the greatest affection, beginning with Fra Bono and the priest Castellino down to the barber and his wife.

The Vicenza mission was also successful on another plane, that is, in the number and quality of Barnabite vocations it originated. These included several attorneys. In their turn, once they became Barnabites, they invited their friends to join the Order.

The extant autograph of this letter is kept in the General Archives in Rome (N,b,II,7).

Cremona, October 8, 1538

To the Reverend Father and brother in Christ,
Mr. Bartolomeo Ferrari.
To the Reformed.

In Vicenza

My dearly beloved in Christ, why do you entertain any doubts? Haven't you experienced in this undertaking that you never lacked the necessary means to help those in need? Nothing is more certain and reliable than experience. Those who love you do not possess the wealth either of a Paul or of a Magdalene; they do, however, trust in the One who enriched them both. Thus as a result of both your faith and theirs God will provide for any person under your care.

You can be sure that, before you speak and in the very moment of speaking, Jesus Crucified will anticipate and accompany, not only every word of yours, but your every holy intention. St. Paul said that he would push forward but stay within the limits of the work that Christ had set for him. As for you, Jesus Crucified has also set a limit when he promised that you would get enough strength to pierce to their marrow the hearts of people. Don't you see that He Himself has opened the doors for you with His own hands? Who, then, will hinder you from entering those hearts and from changing them so completely as to renew them and beautify them with holy virtues? Nobody, of course-neither the devil nor any other creature.

And don't let any weakening you may experience in your preaching and in your pastoral work stop you; for just as through constant school exercises, ignorance is dispelled and iron is kept shining the more it is used, so it is with Christian asceticism. At the beginning, Paul was not what he became afterward. So it is with everybody else. You can be assured then that on the foundation of Paul, you are going to build not structures made of hay or wood but of gold and precious stones; and the heavens with their treasures will be opened to you and to the souls entrusted to you.

Sweet hearts of my heart, I embrace you, as I am certain you will grow perfect according to your interior dispositions. Oh! Were you only here with me, nothing in the world could prevent me from embracing and covering you with endless signs of affection. But You, dear Jesus, embrace them on my behalf.

Dear saintly son, the project in which you are now engaged is also my responsibility, as you probably have noticed. I could not help but be with you, for nowhere else is my heart than with yours. Therefore, may the ample freedom, which I have always given you, be for you a sure guarantee that your undertakings will conclude happily with profit to all.

Good Mother Prioress, don't waste your time in personal trifles. Even if you might consider yourself a devil, worthy of being submerged not only in muddy water but also in a cesspool, and you were utterly convinced of it, don't worry about it. Instead, give yourself totally to serving those people who have already been entrusted to your care, and who will continue to be entrusted to you by Jesus Crucified in the future.

Oh, you who are the very mirror of my life, remember that you are generous and that Jesus Crucified has always been abundantly generous with you; how then can they who love you as they love themselves fail to be at your side to help you?

And you, Franceschina, if you acknowledge that you have derived benefit from evil - not, of course, through your own efforts but through the efforts of those who strive to give you life in Christ - be convinced that you owe them, in sheer gratitude, what you are already giving them: I mean your diligence in pleasing them by undertaking the works which they have entrusted to you. Do make progress, and help the others make progress as well.

And all of you do the same.

I do not recommend our Sylvestrines to you because they are indeed very much recommended as they are already yours. Please, tell them on my behalf, when and how you think it convenient, generally and in particular, whatever you wish.

As to those who are outside our community, if you think it fit to write something to them on my behalf, it is up to you, for you know better than I do what is to be said to them. Besides, overburdened as I am with other cares, I am quite limited; so much so that I am unable to respond to the needs of those to whom I am bound to attend and for whom indeed I feel obligated.

Now I would like to write to my sweet Paolina, but I do not find the time. Likewise, it would be a pleasure to write to my faithful Donna Lucrezia, but I can't. Please, tell her that I would like her to be like me by trying not only to progress in her own life-a small achievement after all-but also to help the others on the same road.

Again, tell my Doyenne that I think of her and her sister as well. Tell my sweet Donna Faustina that I do not forget her -- how could I? -- and that she can count on my promise.

Finally, you can assure them all that I am theirs, and that Jesus Crucified makes me love them very much indeed because they are generous.

To our amiable Fra Bono and Master Castellino, priest, lots of greetings in Christ; kiss them for me. To them too, I would have liked to write, but as I really can't, present them with my apology. Particularly let our worthy Father Abbot be assured that he is among brothers, and that it is a temptation from the evil one to have him withdraw from them. The devil is afraid lest what he dislikes should come true, and, in fact, he knows by experience that our friend's simplicity has always borne fruit, and that every time he has cast the net, he has always caught large and good fish.

As for my saintly priest Castellino, I wish to see him, and I would like him not to deprive me of his presence, for I am about to begin negotiations for St. Barnabas, and I do not want him to miss the inaugural benediction. I would never do this without his presence. Besides, I want you to send him as your delegate to the conclusion of the transaction. I know that you will miss his presence, but, as I am aware of your being always ready to satisfy the wishes of others before your own, I beg you to endure his absence and to send him to me. Be so kind as to remember me to him and entreat him to come soon, so that we may be together for this enterprise.

Remember me to our beloved ones: Mr. Lodovico, Mr. Antonio, my faithful Franceschi's, my host Mr. Andrea, and all the others. A kiss to all from me.

Greetings also to Count Brunoro, Giulio, the barber and his wife, the Reverend Fathers Alessandro, Luigi, and Antonio. I would like everyone to know the self-sacrificing devotion of our Fra Bono because then the Forty Hours Devotion and the other apostolic works would indeed make progress. Suggest to Madonna Maddalena that she get acquainted with him. Remember me to her. If you dismiss Donna Giovanna, let me know.

As for Gerolamo, I really do not know what to say; it is not my concern.

My dearly beloved one, if I have left out anyone or anything, since I am quite tired, you take care of it. May Christ bless you one by one in the depth of your hearts, and give you His own Spirit.

From Cremona, October 8, 1538.

If Madonna has not yet taken care of your brother, have no misgiving because today or tomorrow I will be going to Guastalla, and I will take care of the matter, along with Paola Antonia who has already written to her about it.

May Christ make you holy.

Yours in Christ,
Father Anthony Mary, Priest
and Mother A [ngelic] P[aola] A[ntonia Negri]

If you like the letters which I had Mr. Camillo [Negri] write, give them to the addressees.