The Collegio Maggiore (International community of Confreres who study in different universities in Rome) began on 28th of October 2025 in the common Hall of St. Alphonsus community, its annual programme on ongoing formation with a talk by Fr. Ivel Mendanha, C.Ss.R., General Consultor, on St. Gerard Majella, marking the 300th anniversary of his birth. Fr. Ivel began with a brief overview of St. Gerard’s life before focusing on the Spirituality of St. Gerard. This was reconstructed not from popular devotions or traditions, but from St. Gerard’s own writings—his letters to religious sisters and lay people, his personal rule of life, and the testimonies of witnesses used in his beatification process.
Drawing from these sources, Fr. Ivel presented five core aspects of St. Gerard’s spirituality:
- Always united to his “Most Beloved God”
- Love for neighbour
- Frank and serene freedom
- Love for the Eucharist
- Uniformity with the Will of God
The last section of the talk was on the theme of St. Gerard as a Missionary of Hope in the Footsteps of the Redeemer. Quoting Pope Francis who said that a Missionary is one who is willing to leave his or her comfort zones to draw closer to the abandoned poor, Fr. Ivel showed that St. Gerard Majella lived that same missionary zeal as a Redemptorist Brother. He identified five pivotal “movements” in St. Gerard’s life where Gerard stepped out of his comfort zone: leaving his family to become a Redemptorist, living community life, embracing his vocation as a religious brother, reaching out to the poor and the abandoned, and going beyond the normal expectations of a religious brother to be a spiritual director.
The life of St. Gerard Majella reminds us that our love for God and neighbour are not two separate realities, but flow from one to the other. The human and the divine are intertwined and integrated in our life as Redemptorist Missionaries. The session ended with a lively time of questions and discussion.
Fr. Dmytro Kit, CSsR.
Assistant Director of the Collegio Maggiore
