Blessed James Alberione

Who was Blessed James Alberione?

Blessed James Alberione was an Italian priest who saw, before almost anyone else in the Church, that the Gospel had to travel by the new roads of the twentieth century: the printing press, magazines, film, radio and every invention still to come. He founded the Pauline Family, ten institutes of priests, brothers, sisters and lay people who proclaim Christ through the media, and he put them all under the patronage of St. Paul. John Paul II called him "an apostle of the new times." He died in Rome on November 26, 1971, and we keep his feast on November 26.

His own phrase, which John Paul II repeated at his beatification, sums up the mission: to make Jesus Christ known "to the people of our time with the means of our time."

A farmer's son who wanted to be a priest

Giacomo (James) Alberione was born on April 4, 1884, at San Lorenzo di Fossano in Piedmont and baptized the next day. His parents, Michele Alberione and Teresa Allocco, were hard-working farmers with six children; James was the fourth. In first grade, when his teacher asked what he wanted to be, he answered, "I want to be a priest!"

The family moved to Cherasco, in the Diocese of Alba, and at sixteen James entered the seminary of Alba. There he met Canon Francesco Chiesa, who would be his "father, guide, friend and advisor" for the next 46 years.

The night between two centuries

The night of December 31, 1900, which divided the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, decided his life. The young seminarian prayed for four hours before the Blessed Sacrament in Alba. According to the Vatican's biography, "a particular light seemed to come from the Host," and he felt obliged "to do something for the Lord and for the people of the new century," serving the Church "with the new instruments provided by human ingenuity."

He was ordained a priest on June 29, 1907. As a curate in Narzole he met a boy named Giuseppe Giaccardo, who would become to him what Timothy was to St. Paul. Back at the seminary he was spiritual director and teacher, and he studied the needs of society and the Church with great care.

The Pauline Family

On August 20, 1914, the day Pope St. Pius X lay dying in Rome, Fr. Alberione opened a small printing school in Alba. It was the seed of the Society of St. Paul. It began in complete poverty, and he liked to say that God's works always begin "from Bethlehem."

The first woman to follow him was Teresa Merlo, twenty-one, from Castagnito. With her he founded the Daughters of St. Paul in 1915. In December 1918 the first Daughters left for Susa, and a bold, simple, hard-working style was born that the family still calls the Pauline way.

In 1923 Fr. Alberione fell gravely ill, and the doctors gave up hope. He recovered against every expectation. "St. Paul healed me," he said later. This is a reported healing, told by Fr. Alberione himself; the Church has not examined it. From that time the words he received from the Divine Master, "in a dream or revelation," were written in every Pauline chapel: "Do not be afraid. I am with you. From here I want to enlighten. Be sorry for sin."

More foundations followed: the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master (1924), for Eucharistic adoration and the liturgy; the Sisters of Jesus the Good Shepherd (1938), to help parish priests; and, between 1957 and 1960, the Apostoline Sisters for vocations and four secular institutes. With the Pauline Cooperators, there were ten institutes in all.

He launched one magazine after another: Vita Pastorale for parish priests (1912), Famiglia Cristiana for families (1931), a monthly in Latin, a magazine on the liturgy and Il Giornalino for children. He printed popular editions of the Bible. He built the Church of St. Paul in Alba, two churches to Jesus the Divine Master and, in Rome, the Sanctuary of Mary Queen of Apostles.

Holiness first

He never let the work swallow the soul. "The first concern of the Pauline Family should be holiness of life; the second, holiness of doctrine," he taught. He wanted his sons and daughters to receive the whole Christ, Way, Truth and Life, with mind, will, heart and body.

From 1962 to 1965 he attended every session of the Second Vatican Council. In his last years he suffered from a painful scoliosis that tormented him day and night.

Death and beatification

On June 28, 1969, Pope St. Paul VI spoke of him to the Pauline Family: "There he is: humble, silent, tireless, always vigilant, recollected in his thoughts, which run from prayer to action." On November 26, 1971, about an hour before Fr. Alberione died, the Pope came to his room in Rome and blessed him. He was 87.

His cause opened in Alba in 1982. Pope John Paul II declared his heroic virtues on June 25, 1996. As every beatification of a non-martyr requires, a miracle attributed to his intercession was then approved, and John Paul II beatified him in St. Peter's Square on April 27, 2003, Divine Mercy Sunday, together with Blessed Marco d'Aviano and four Italian religious women.

Symbols of Blessed James Alberione in art

He lived in the age of photography, and his portraits are drawn from photographs: a thin, stooped priest with white hair and glasses.

• Bible: he spread popular editions of Scripture and is often shown holding the Book.
• Printing press, books and magazines: his apostolate of the press, the first of all the Pauline works.
• Black cassock: the simple dress of a diocesan priest of Piedmont.
• Eucharist: the night of 1900 before the Host, and the adoration at the heart of his family.
• Image of St. Paul: the Apostle he chose as father of the whole family.

Feast day and prayer

We keep his feast on November 26. See the feast day calendar.

We know of no traditional prayer to him in public-domain form. Let us pray with the words that hang in every Pauline chapel: "Do not be afraid. I am with you." Blessed James, pray for writers, publishers and everyone who works in the media, that they may serve the truth.