The book “Mariano Gazpio. Correspondence “contains all the letters sent and received by Frater Mariano Gazpio (1899-1989), which have been compiled by his biographer, the Augustinian Recollect historian José Javier Lizarraga. The introduction is by Miguel Miró, Augustinian Recollect.
The Documents Section of the institutional website of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine offers starting today, Friday, December 22, a new book accessible in PDF, published by the same Province, and titled “Mariano Gazpio. Correspondence”.
These are all the letters sent and received by Frater Mariano Gapzio (1899-1989), an Augustinian Recollect religious declared venerable by the Church and in the process of canonization. He was successively a missionary in China, a trainer of missionaries and spiritual director of dozens of people for several decades.
The Augustinian Recollect José Javier Lizarraga has been his biographer, and from his research work arose the book also published on this page “A path of fidelity”. Now, after searching for all the letters sent or received by Frater Mariano Gazpio that have survived to the present day, Lizarraga has compiled them and added an introduction, notes of historical criticism, contextual information and a presentation of Frater Mariano’s postal interlocutors.
The book was presented in Madrid on December 5, coinciding with the celebration of the 435th anniversary of the Augustinian Recollection and with the opening of the I Centenary of the Mission of the Augustinian Recollects in Shangqiu (Henan, China), where Gazpio was a missionary for almost 30 years (1924-1952).
Gazpio left on the first missionary expedition to Shangqiu and was one of the last to leave after the expulsion decreed by the authorities. He diligently studied the language, which he achieved a good command of and taught it to the new missionaries. He endured cold and heat, wars and invasions, assaults and robberies, hunger and thirst, house arrest and religious persecution.
He held positions of special responsibility, such as religious superior and vicar general of the mission. He was a reference for priests and laymen, Christians and pagans. In 1936 he was already known as “the saint of the Mission.”
In 2000, the process for his canonization was opened and in 2021 the Holy See declared him Venerable. For his religious family, he is “an incarnation of the Augustinian Recollect charisma, perhaps the most successful of the 20th century,” as the Recollect historian Ángel Martínez Cuesta has stated.
The volume publishes 170 letters, 133 sent and 37 received, a modest epistolary. Most correspond to his time in China, in part because the missionaries had been encouraged to recount his experiences. They were more likely to reach our days, published in the Bulletin of the Province of San Nicolás de Tolentino or in the magazine ( All Missionaries) Todos Misioneros; or they reached the historical archives of the Augustinian Recollects, the Augustinian Recollect Missionaries or the Vatican.
Fray Mariano’s letters sketch a portrait of his life and transmit traits of his personality and his life experience, such as his love and respect for the Chinese people, who appear everywhere, or his maxim of never speaking ill of anyone or ever. Highlight your own achievements or successes.
