Francesco Spinelli

Upon returning to Bergamo after his jubilee pilgrimage to Rome in 1875, Francesco Spinelli sought to realize the vision he had received in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. In close collaboration with Geltrude Comensoli, he co-founded the Institute of the Sacramentine Sisters on December 15, 1882, in Bergamo, a female community dedicated to the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the education of poor young girls. The community faced financial difficulties and suffered from slander; on March 4, 1889, the Bishop of Bergamo severed Spinelli's canonical link with the Institute, forcing him to leave the diocese without the priest offering resistance or seeking to justify himself publicly. He took refuge in extreme poverty in Rivolta d'Adda, in the Diocese of Cremona. There, far from being discouraged, he patiently reconstituted a community, and in 1892 the Institute of the Adorer Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament was established, distinct from the Sacramentines of Bergamo. Diocesan approval was granted in 1897 by Bishop Geremia Bonomelli. Spinelli continued to guide his religious sisters according to the dual charism he had transmitted to them: "to adore the Blessed Sacrament with the most ardent love and to draw from it the flame of charity toward one's neighbor." At his death in 1913, the congregation counted several houses in Italy; it subsequently expanded to Argentina, Senegal, Colombia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The spiritual figure of Francesco Spinelli is dominated by two inseparable traits: Eucharistic adoration as the source of all interior life, and active charity toward the poor as the fruit of this contemplation. From childhood, he had learned to visit the sick and the needy; as a priest, he opened evening schools for poor workers. But it is in trial that the mettle of his virtue is most clearly revealed. When in 1889 he was forced to leave Bergamo due to slander and intrigue, he accepted this cross without seeking to defend himself or obtain reparation, seeing in his obedience to the diocesan authority an act of conformity to the divine will. In Rivolta d'Adda, he arrived in total destitution and rebuilt his work through patience and prayer. Cardinal Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli—the future John XXIII—visited Spinelli's tomb on August 30, 1958, and noted his admiration for the general house of the Adorer Sisters. Pope John Paul II, in declaring him venerable on March 3, 1990, formally recognized that he had "heroically practiced the Christian virtues," thus consecrating the coherence between his interior life and his pastoral action.

The cause for the beatification of Francesco Spinelli was opened on January 25, 1952, under the pontificate of Pius XII, who granted him the title of Servant of God. On March 3, 1990, John Paul II promulgated the decree recognizing his heroic virtues, conferring upon him the title of Venerable. A first miracle—a healing without scientific explanation confirmed by medical experts on January 9, 1992—allowed John Paul II to approve the beatification on June 2, 1992. The beatification ceremony took place on June 21, 1992, at the Sanctuary of Santa Maria del Fonte in Caravaggio. For the canonization, a second miracle was investigated: the complete and inexplicable healing of a newborn in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo). Born on April 25, 2007, the child had suffered a severe internal hemorrhage; the doctors, unable to insert an IV, were preparing to give up when an Adorer sister implored the intercession of the Blessed by placing an image of Father Spinelli under the newborn's sheets. The doctors then found an accessible vein and the child recovered instantly. This miracle was confirmed by medical experts on September 21, 2017, by theologians on November 30, 2017, and by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on February 6, 2018; Pope Francis ratified it on March 6, 2018. The canonization was proclaimed on October 14, 2018, in Saint Peter's Square in Rome, during the Synod on Youth. His liturgical feast is set for February 6, the anniversary of his death.

The work of Francesco Spinelli took on an international dimension that the founder had only glimpsed. At his death in 1913, the Sisters Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament were already established in several houses in Italy; the congregation subsequently expanded to Argentina, Senegal, Colombia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2005, there were 59 houses and 436 religious sisters worldwide. The Spinellian charism, based on the contemplation-action binomial, influenced 20th-century Catholic Eucharistic piety by showing that prolonged adoration before the Blessed Sacrament does not lead to withdrawal into oneself but to a more ardent charity toward the poor. Pope John Paul II, in addressing the Sisters Adorers in July 2001, summarized this legacy by exhorting them to "walk in charity" while drawing their strength from the Eucharist. Rivolta d'Adda, where Spinelli lived his final years and where he died, has remained a place of pilgrimage and the seat of the congregation he refounded there. His canonization, which occurred during the Synod of Bishops on "Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment," highlighted the meaning of his founding vocation as a permanent response to the call of contemplation and service.