Quirico Pignalberi

After completing his secondary studies, the young religious was sent to Rome to continue his formation. He first studied philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University (1911-1913), then theology at the Pontifical Faculty of Saint Bonaventure (today the "Seraphicum") from 1914 to 1917. During his stay at the Order's International College in Rome, he met a young Polish cleric, the future Saint Maximilian-Maria Kolbe. A deep spiritual friendship, sealed by a shared Marian ideal, was born between the two men. On December 25, 1913, Quirico made his solemn vows. He was ordained a priest on August 10, 1917, in Rome.

On October 16, 1917, in a cell at the college on Via di San Teodoro in Rome, Father Quirico joined Saint Maximilian Kolbe and five other confreres (Giuseppe Pal, Antonio Głowiński, Girolamo Biasi, Antonio Mansi, and Enrico Granata) to found the Militia of the Immaculata (Milizia dell'Immacolata). This Marian and missionary movement aimed to work for the conversion of sinners and enemies of the Church through total consecration to the Virgin Mary.

Shortly after, on October 31, 1917, in the midst of the First World War, Father Quirico was mobilized into the medical corps of the Italian army. He served in the second line at the front in Arcade, on Montebello. Having fallen ill, he was discharged on January 3, 1919.

After the war, he exercised his ministry in various communities of the Order: in Capranica in 1919, then in Cave in 1920, where he assumed the role of rector of the young seminarians. In 1925, he was appointed novice master in Bagnoregio. In 1928, he was transferred to the convent of San Lorenzo in Piglio, where he would serve as novice master until 1942, and then again from 1949 to 1964. He also assumed the duties of superior (guardian) and bursar there. During the Second World War, he showed great courage by hiding and protecting soldiers sought by the occupying forces within the Piglio convent, while devoting himself to the service of the sick and the poor.

In 1967, although infirm and now confined to a wheelchair, he fervently celebrated his golden priestly jubilee. On April 1, 1979, during a pastoral visit by Pope John Paul II to the Roman parish of San Bonaventura, the Sovereign Pontiff embraced him warmly and greeted him as the last living co-founder of the Militia of the Immaculata. Father Quirico spent the last fifteen years of his life at the "La Francescana" retirement home in Anzio Colonia, offering his physical sufferings to the Lord. He passed away on July 18, 1982, at the age of 91.

The reputation for holiness of Father Quirico Pignalberi spread rapidly after his death. On February 11, 1992, the Postulator General of the Conventual Franciscans, Father Ambrogio Sanna, officially requested the opening of the cause for beatification from the Bishop of Albano, Msgr. Dante Bernini, as the death had occurred within the territory of that diocese. The cause was subsequently transferred to the Diocese of Anagni-Alatri. The diocesan inquiry was officially opened on June 20, 1992, by the Bishop of Anagni, and the Holy See granted its nulla osta on July 9, 1992. The inquiry concluded on July 1, 2005, and its legal validity was recognized by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on February 9, 2007. The Positio super virtutibus was submitted in Rome in 2011. On February 3, 2015, the theological consultants provided their unanimous approval, followed on February 9, 2016, by the cardinals and bishops of the Congregation.

On March 3, 2016, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic nature of the virtues of Father Quirico Pignalberi, thereby conferring upon him the title of Venerable.

The spirituality of the Venerable Quirico Pignalberi rests on three fundamental pillars: the Eucharist, the contemplation of the Lord's Passion, and a filial and absolute devotion to the Virgin Mary under the title of the Immaculate. A faithful emulator of Saint Francis of Assisi, he led an extremely austere, humble, and poor existence, marked by penance, silence, and a confident abandonment to the divine will. Saint Maximilian Kolbe himself admired his profound modesty and said of him that he "did not strive to do extraordinary things, but did ordinary things in an extraordinary way."

His legacy remains alive through the Militia of the Immaculata, of which he was the guardian of historical memory until his death. His mortal remains, initially buried in the family cemetery of Serrone, were transferred on March 30, 1985, to the Sacred Heart chapel of the San Lorenzo convent in Piglio, which remains an important place of pilgrimage. A spiritual and walking route of 10 kilometers, called the "Cammino sulle orme del Venerabile P. Quirico Pignalberi," has been laid out between his birthplace of Collepetto and the convent of Piglio, allowing the faithful to walk in his footsteps through the landscapes of the province of Frosinone.