Giovanni Battista Quilici

From the moment of his ordination, Father Giovanni Battista Quilici dedicated himself to itinerant and active preaching in the heart of the darkest realities of Livorno. Sensitive to the distress of the excluded, he directed his ministry toward what Pope Francis would later call the "existential peripheries": the prisoners of the bagni of the Fortezza Vecchia, children abandoned on the streets, and young women forced into prostitution.

Starting in 1828, he managed to mobilize civil authorities and obtained financial support from the Grand Ducal family of Tuscany, particularly the women of the court, to carry out his assistance projects in prisons and disadvantaged neighborhoods. In 1835, he was appointed the first parish priest of the new parish of Santi Pietro e Paolo (Saints Peter and Paul) in Livorno, a role he would fulfill with total devotion. That same year, during a terrible cholera epidemic that ravaged the city and took the life of his own sister, he spent himself without counting the cost for the sick, contracting the virus himself before recovering. In 1837, he refused the prestigious position of penitentiary canon of the cathedral so as not to distance himself from his parishioners and the poor.

His major work focused on the rehabilitation and education of vulnerable young girls. After inaugurating the Santa Maria Maddalena (Saint Mary Magdalene) Institute of Charity on July 1, 1837, to welcome and instruct poor young girls, he officially founded the congregation of the Daughters of the Crucifix (Figlie del Crocifisso) on September 13, 1840. Supported by five young women who shared his ideal of charity, this religious institute dedicated itself to the reception and the Christian and professional instruction (weaving, sewing) of young girls who were abandoned or from the streets, in order to guarantee them a dignified future.

The reputation of holiness of Father Quilici, already firmly established during his lifetime, endured after his death. The process for his beatification was officially opened under the pontificate of John Paul II. The diocesan inquiry into his life, virtues, and reputation of holiness took place within the ecclesiastical curia of Livorno from June 17, 1994, to June 20, 1998. During this phase, forty-two sessions were held and twenty-five witnesses were heard. The legal validity of this diocesan inquiry was formally recognized by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints by a decree on November 12, 1999.

Following the thorough examination of the Positio by the theological consultants and the cardinals of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Pope Francis authorized, on March 3, 2016, the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Giovanni Battista Quilici. By this act, the priest from Livorno was officially declared venerable. For his beatification to be pronounced, the official recognition of a miracle attributed to his intercession by the Holy See remains necessary.

The spirituality of Giovanni Battista Quilici is deeply rooted in the contemplation of the crucified Christ, a mystery of love and incarnation that drives him to seek the face of Jesus among the most suffering and despised in society. Nicknamed the "father of the poor," he was able to anticipate many modern pastoral intuitions, such as the promotion of women's dignity, the active collaboration of laypeople and families in parish life, and the ideal of a "Church of the poor" that goes forth.

Don Quilici passed away on June 10, 1844, in Livorno, on the feast day of Corpus Domini, after a brief illness. His funeral gave rise to an immense outpouring of popular fervor. His body rests today in the church of Santi Pietro e Paolo in Livorno. His spiritual and social legacy is perpetuated by the congregation of the Daughters of the Crucifix, which is still active, as well as by the lay association "Amici del Quilici" (Friends of Quilici), which draws inspiration from his charism to work with marginalized people.