During the late summer of 1817 Stephen suddenly resigned from his various offices and, on September 24, after sharing dinner with his family, left for what all thought was to have been a brief vacation before school was to resume. Stephen was now 43 years old and had never had a real vacation before. His family wished him safe travel, not suspecting in the least that he would never again sit at their table.
Two weeks later, he wrote his brother Angelo from Bologna, informing him of the true nature of his plans, “Don’t be surprised if I tell you that I have left Trent never to return. The reason for this decision of mine was the royal decree not to re-open the monastery of San Marco. What fervent desire burned in my heart to put on once again my holy habit! God finally heard my wishes and deigned to have me called by my General to Rome where I am to meet my fate.” (Domenico Gobbi, Lettere di Stefano Bellesini, Santa Maria del Buon Consiglio, Genazzano)
Soon he would arrive at the monastery of Sant’Agostino, where he had once been a student, to take up again the way of life he had been forced to put aside.
“According to the spirit of the world, this determination of mine will be strongly disapproved and it will be considered foolishness to abandon homeland, pension and position to close myself in a monastery… God called me to return to the life I had professed and, with all the joy of my heart, I obeyed the Divine call promptly, which I hold to be one of the greatest mercies that the Almighty has deigned to show me, and I find myself close to the harbor of my happiness…” On his arrival at Sant’Agostino he wrote to his sister-in-law, “I am enjoying a perfect calmness of spirit for which I am so happy that it seems I have been resurrected and, after baptism, I don’t think I have received from God a grace greater than this, to have been freed from so long an exile and to have been returned to my most dearly beloved mother (religious life) who with the sweetest and most tender dealings welcomed me and continues to make me taste the keenness of her love. It gives me such consolation to be here that I feel as though I am in paradise.”
-Michael DiGregorio, OSA
Posted by Carlos J. Medina, Novice
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