Giuseppe Codicè

After his ordination, Father Giuseppe Codicè first exercised his ministry in Budrio from 1864 to 1866, providing pastoral assistance in various parishes of the region. On August 1, 1870, he was appointed pastor of the parish of Santa Maria Annunziata in Vedrana, a frazione of Budrio. He would exercise his pastoral office there with tireless zeal for more than forty years.

It was in this parish that he founded, on December 8, 1883, the "Pia Unione delle Visitandine dell'Immacolata" (Pious Union of the Visitandine Sisters of the Immaculate) with a group of six young women from Vedrana. Inspired by the spirituality of Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, this community dedicated itself to the home care of the poor and the sick, the religious education of the youth, and the human and Christian advancement of young women.

To support this work, Father Giuseppe acquired the former San Giorgio hospital to make it the Motherhouse of the congregation, which also served as a training school for young women and a kindergarten. In 1911, at the suggestion of the Archbishop of Bologna, Msgr. Giacomo Della Chiesa (the future Pope Benedict XV), he purchased the Palazzo Gozzadini in Bologna (Via Santo Stefano, 58) to open the "Giovanna d'Arco" boarding school for young women, thus allowing them to pursue their secondary and higher education in the city.

His ministry was also marked by physical and moral trials: he suffered from a serious illness and underwent a period of unjust imprisonment. Despite these trials and the intense tensions with the anticlerical and socialist circles of his time, he maintained an unshakable faith and a spirit of conciliation. Under his spiritual guidance, the small community of Vedrana saw the birth of twelve new priestly vocations.

Father Giuseppe Codicè died suddenly on January 21, 1915, in Vedrana. While preparing to celebrate Mass at the foot of the altar of San Luigi, he was taken ill and passed away a few hours later. His reputation for holiness, already strong during his lifetime as a "good parish priest" close to his faithful, was maintained after his death. The diocesan informative process on his life, virtues, and reputation for holiness was opened on January 21, 1988 (the anniversary of his death) and concluded on April 30, 1995, within the Archdiocese of Bologna.

On December 21, 2018, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Father Giuseppe Codicè, thereby conferring upon him the title of Venerable.

The spirituality of Father Giuseppe Codicè rests on a deep Eucharistic devotion and an assiduous contemplation of the Passion of Christ. For him, the tabernacle is the holy place par excellence. He transmitted to his sisters a rule of life summarized by the maxim of Saint Francis de Sales: "Everything through love, nothing by force" (Tutto per amore e niente per forza). He also exhorted his faithful to "do ordinary things in an extraordinary way."

The legacy of Father Giuseppe is perpetuated through the work of the Visitandine Sisters of the Immaculate, who managed numerous schools, kindergartens, and retirement homes in the province of Bologna. Although the original community withdrew to the Generalate House of Bologna, the Mother House of Vedrana was entrusted in 2018 to the Missionary Community of Villaregia to continue charitable and hospitality activities.