Mariano is the name professor Paolo Roasenda chose when he became a Capuchin friar, aged 34, in the Convent of Fiuggi (Frosinone). He changed his first name, according to the Capuchins’ custom and chose this new one – Mariano – “To honour – he then wrote – the One to Whom I owe so much. I blissfully think that every time people call my poor name, something echoes about Her.

Since his boyhood he had joined the “Catholic Action” and on the Catholic Action’s newspapers he published his first articles. He also wrote and played a comedy when he was nineteen. When he was appointed teacher of Latin and Greek at the Mamiani High School in Rome, he increased his engagement in the “Catholic Action” in those difficult years, when Fascism had forbidden any kind of social organization. Then the Vicar Cardinal appointed him president of the Roman Youth of the Catholic Action. As a teacher engaged in catholic associations, he published books and articles about classical culture and religious education.

Born in 1906, he knew the Fascist period of twenty years during which he had his cultural growth and worked as a teacher, he saw the transition from Monarchy to Republic; he contributed to Italy’s democratic choice taking actively part in professor Gedda’s Civic Committees.

At the age of 24, young teacher of classical literature at the High School in Pinerolo, he wrote his aunt these words, never disavowed in his future life: “What will I be? I know nothing today, but the Lord sees this: that I strongly want to dedicate all my life (as He will like and where He will like) for the good of souls. I think it is necessary not to hesitate: it is the nicest life, the most consoling and noblest one, and you can put it into practice in any state”. (Letter to his aunt Costanza of 01.13.1990).

Et, at the end of 1940, he gave up teaching and joined the Capuchins. Professor Paolo Roasenda changed his name into “Mariano from Turin”, took his graduation in theology and was ordained priest. He was a chaplain at the Roman hospitals of “Santa Maria della Pietà, Santo Spirito in Sassia as well as at Regina Coeli prison. In the years of the Vatican II Ecumenical Council he was seen as a careful propagator through the TV screen; he was a pioneer in using the means of social communication and he lived in the first person the most significant issues in the years of reconstruction, economic welfare, student contestation and social laws, without ever becoming a “star”, but with humbleness and simplicity.

He was chosen by TV leaders among about thirty aspirants to hold a religious spot, which began in January 1955, that he always started and ended with the greeting “Peace and Good to Everybody”! He had such an approval by the public that the presence of this Capuchin on TV became more and more frequent and significant, till the day of his death, in 1972. .

In 1969, answering a question on the magazine “Radiocorriere TV” (n. 39, page 4), he exposed his thoughts about the way of preaching: “To be heard by the ear, the mind, and the heart”. I.e., he said, to let the words be distinctly heard (the ear); then to be understood: “The first charity to be used is to put oneself on the side of the listeners and make easy what by its nature is difficult to understand” (the mind); then to “hear” by the heart, that means that the one who speaks must be the first one to put into practice what he tells or recommends the others. And, as an advise he added: “be short!”. In fact, these have been the four things which have made Father Mariano popular, appreciated and convincing, wherever he spoke, and whoever he spoke to, even on TV.

He lived his days of active faith in the “Immacolata Concezione” Convent, 27, Via Veneto, where his mortal remains have been transported and have become a reference point for the faith of many people. On his tomb people pray every Tuesday, the day when his programs where telecasted, to thank and ask for the protection of the “TV Capuchin”.

Shall we soon have the first “TV Sanit” ?

R.C.

To know more:

“La Posta di Padre” Mariano (Father Mariano’s Mail)

two-month magazine, collecting documents,
testimonies and writings by/about Father Mariano.

For further information and to receive audios, videos and printed material:
Vice postulazione per la Causa di canonizzazione di Padre Mariano da Torino
Via Vittorio Veneto, 27 - 00187 Roma. Tel. 06/4747713.