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Concept
Sylvester Gozzolini
Summary
Silvestro Guzzolini (1177 – 26 November 1267) was an Italian Catholic priest and the founder of the Silvestrini. He served as a canon in Osimo but respectful rebukes of his bishop's inappropriate conduct led him to leave for a hermitage before the bishop could strip him of his position. He remained in his hermitage with a determination to found a religious congregation and based it upon the Order of Saint Benedict after having a dream of Benedict of Nursia. His order received papal approval from Pope Innocent IV which allowed his order to expand across Italian cities to a significant degree.
His beatification was confirmed in the 1260s after his death in 1267, and he was later canonized in 1598 as a saint.
Silvestro Guzzolini was born to Gislerio and Bianca Guzzolini in Osimo. He was sent in 1197 to learn jurisprudence in the college at Bologna, for law, and the college in Padua. Finding no satisfaction in his studies and deeming them too secular, he felt called to the ecclesiastical state and abandoned his studies in law for theological and scriptural studies.
On his return home in 1208 it is said that his father—angered at his change of purpose —refused to speak to him for ten years. After the diocesan bishop ordained him in 1217, Guzzolini accepted a position as a canon at Osimo. He devoted himself to pastoral work with such zeal as to arouse hostility from his bishop, whom he had respectfully rebuked for the scandals that the prelate's irregular life had caused.
The prelate threatened to strip him of his position, but Guzzolini decided to leave the world when, while presiding over a funeral, he saw the corpse of one who had once been noted for their looks. He retired to a deserted place far from Osimo in 1227 and lived there in strict poverty until the owner of the land, the nobleman Corrado, recognized him and offered him a better site for his hermitage. The damp drove him from that place, and he established himself next at Grotta Fucile where he later built a convent for his future religious order.
Official source
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