Father Pio Bruno Lanteri (1759-1830) was an Italian priest from Cuneo in Piedmont, who worked in Turin for over fifty years. His apostolic activity was the response of an intelligent man filled with ardent faith to the immense challenges of his time. A time when the anti-Christian spirit of the French Revolution was spreading. A time when Jansenist rigorism presented a God of merciless severity and radically challenged the authority of the Pope. A time when it was difficult to find firm reference points for one’s own spiritual life.
In this context, the young seminarian Bruno Lanteri had an extraordinary experience of God’s mercy. Under the paternal and friendly guidance of Jesuit Father Nicolas Von Diessbach, he discovered the true face of God. For him, this was the beginning of a new life totally founded on trust in the infinite Mercy of God manifested in Christ Jesus. He became a formidable witness to this through an intense and multifaceted apostolic activity: preaching the “Spiritual Exercises” and popular missions, spiritual direction and confession, publishing and distributing books, supporting associations of lay people and priests, providing concrete assistance to the poor and destitute. In all this, he was always attentive to guiding people “towards truth in charity”.
Left motherless at the age of four, his father entrusted him to the Virgin Mary. Throughout his life, he retained a great affection for her. “I have known no other mother than the Virgin Mary, and from her I have received nothing but caresses”, he said at the end of his life. he said at the end of his life. On all occasions, he spoke of the Virgin Mary as the one who leads to Christ.
Fidelity to the Church and to the Vicar of Christ was also a hallmark of his spirituality and action. He was even placed under house arrest by the Napoleonic police for three years, due to his involvement in the defense of Pope Pius VII, who had been taken into exile by Napoleon.
A man of great kindness and affability, he helped everyone to assume the responsibilities of their vocation in a true evangelical spirit. For many years, he led the ” Amitiés chrétiennes “, an association of lay men and women committed to authentic prayer and the apostolate of “spreading good books”.
Together with the members of the ” Amitié sacerdotale “, he founded the Congregation of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, dedicated to the preaching of the Spiritual Exercises and to popular missions. Having spent a short time with the Carthusian monks, before becoming a priest and religious, he was marked by the importance of a life of intense prayer and the quest for true holiness. His motto is attributed to him: the oblate dies at the ambo (preaching) or in the confessional (forgiveness of sinners). Moreover, his interiority led him to great restraint in his words and the pursuit of exemplary charity towards all. He lived the Christian virtues heroically.
Father Lanteri died on August 5, 1830 in Pinerolo, surrounded by his confreres. His last words were an exhortation to love: “Love one another, at the cost of any sacrifice”. Father Lanteri’s cause for beatification was introduced in Rome in 1930, and in 1965 Pope Paul VI declared him Venerable.
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