To buy a copy of this wonderful work for God, click here.
Someone recently gave it to me as an Easter gift and it is a really very inspiring and beautiful work and I recommend it to anyone who wants to deepen their appreciation and reverence for Our Lord in the Most Holy Eucharist - that is - to everyone. May God and Our Lady bless Fr Stefano and all the Friars of the Immaculate, spreading the good news of God's Kingdom around the globe.
Fr. Stefano Maria Manelli was born in Fiume/Rijeka (Hrvatska), Italy on May 1, 1933. His parents were Vervent of God Settimio Manelli and Servent of God Licia Gualandris, spiritual children of St. Pio of Prietrelcina. He was the sixth of the twenty-one children. He received his first communion from Padre Pio himself in 1938 He entered the minor seminary of the Order of the Friars Minor Conventual in Cupertino (Lecce) on 18th of December of 1945 at the age of 12 years old. He made his simple profession on October 4, 1949; his solemn profession on May 27 1954 and was ordained a priest on October 30 1955, the Solemnity of Christ, the King.
He became the Prefect of Studies of the Conventual Province of Naples. In the beginning of 1965, Father Stefano Maria began a long rediscovery and meditation of the Franciscan sources and of the writings of St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe.
At the summon of the Second Vatican Council to religious to return back to their sources and to adapt to the changing conditions of the time as principles of renewal of religious life, Fr. Stefano was inspired to live integrally the Franciscan life according to the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi according to the recent examples of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Franciscan model of our time. On August 2, 1970, Feast of Our Lady of the Portiuncula, Fr. Stefano together with Fr. Gabriel Maria Pelletieri and with the permission and blessing of the major superiors, began to live an experience of a Franciscan life renewed according to the "Traccia" (A Marian Plan of Franciscan Life) in the first Casa Mariana (Marian House/Friary) in the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Frigento (AV), Italy.
Fr. Stefano Maria is the superior of the Marian Friary in Frigento from 1970 until 1973 and from 1979 until 1982. He became the Master of novices in the same Casa Marian of Frigento for 10 years, from 1972 until 1982. He was elected Minister Provincial in Naples for three consecutive terms (1982-1988) In November 1, 1982, together with Fr. Gabriel, he founded the first community of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate in Novaliches (Manila, Philippines) which developed under the care of Fr. Gabriel Maria Pelletieri, following the "Marian Traccia of Franciscan Life." In 1988, he was elected rector of the theological College "San Francesco" in Benevento until 1990. In June 23 1990, in the foundation of the Institute of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, he became its Minister General until the present time.
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