In December, 1817, Stephen was affiliated to the monastery of Our Mother of Good Counsel in Genazzano, but before he could reach there he was asked by the Prior General to become Master of Novices at Sant’Agostino. In this new duty he quickly became an example of simplicity and devotion, of gentleness and fervor. One of his novices from this period remarked years later, “When I entered the novitiate I was 17 years old and I was accompanied by my maternal uncle, who on first meeting Fr. Stephen said to me: ‘He seems like a saint to me.’ That judgment was really founded on the truth. I never met anyone else with a heart as loving as his toward us, like the most affectionate of fathers toward his own children."
According to the judgment of his novices, the basis of all of Fr. Stephen’s instructions to them remained always the fundamental principle of the Rule and of the Gospel: love of God and love of neighbor. And Fr. Stephen’s own life was a clear expression of his own teaching. His was a love that was visible in the profound reverence he held toward all that pertained to the life of faith: prayer, devotion, piety, simplicity of life, respect, love for the Church and love for the Order; and love practiced in his dealings with others as brother, father, and – yes, at times even mother – in acts of service to those entrusted to his care, in the most concrete and menial of tasks, which he performed happily, faithfully, and quietly.
-Michael DiGregorio, OSA
Posted by Carlos J. Medina
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