Father Germano Archeologist, Philosopher, Passionist. Father Germano of St Stanislaus, in the world Vincenza Ruoppolo, was born Vico Equense, in the territory of Naples, on 17th January, 1850, and on the following day he received the Sacrament of Baptism. Only one fact relating to his early years has come down to us, and that a rather strange one: he was admitted to the Holy Table when only five years old. While still quite young, he intended to enter the ecclesiastical state, and betook himself to Naples, where he made great progress in his studies, especially in the Greek and Latin classics. As an instance of the early development of his mind, we may state that, when only 12 years old, he defended, with success, a thesis in philosophy. He soon felt drawn to the religious life, and before he had attained the age of 16, he received the Passionist habit at the Retreat of Scala Santa, Rome. Having completed the year of his novitiate, he was admitted to profession, 7th October, 1866. In his life of Blessed Gabriel, he describes so vividly the sentiments of this great servant of God at his profession that there is every reason to believe that his own experience must have been similar. In 1870 Rome was taken by the Italian troops, and Confrater Germano, was then pursuing his studies at our Retreat of Saints John and Paul, was obliged to take refuge at Ere, Tournai in Belgium. He was ordained priest in November 3rd, 1872, in the Chapel of the seminary of Tournai, before he had completed his 23rd year. He continued to reside in Belgium for a couple of years, and, as he had acquired a good knowledge of the language, he exercised the ministry of preaching with much fruit. In 1874 he was sent to Boulogne-sur-mer in France, and in the following year to Bordeaux. One who knew him intimately writes from France that both in France and Belgium he left behind him imperishable memories. In 1876 he was recalled to Italy and employed as a lector in our houses of the Scala Santa, St. Eutizio, near Soriano, and SS. John and Paul in Rome, successively. In 1885 he was once more sent to France; and on his return the following year he was arrested on the charge of having failed to comply with the law of military service, but he defended himself with so much address that he was acquitted. During the remaining 23 years of his life, he laboured indefatigably in teaching, giving missions, writing those works which have made him famous, and as Postulator of the causes of Blessed Gabriel and other holy personages. Indeed the early beatification of Blessed Gabriel must, under God, be attributed to his untiring zeal. Leo XIII, had such a high idea of his prudence and tact that he employed him in several affairs that called for the exercise of these virtues; and the esteem in which he was held by the present Pope appears sufficiently from the fact that he appointed him Apostolic Visitor of several dioceses in Italy, among them the important ones of Florence and Lucca. Our congregation was not insensible to his merits; at the last General Chapter in 1908, which he attended in quality of Provincial Consultor, he was elected General Consultor. His death took place in December 11th of last year after only 12 hours of serious illness. As long ago as the period of his residence in Belgium and France he suffered much from cerebral anaemia, and some time before his death the attacks became so acute that they gave rise to serious anxiety. His health shortly before his death seemed much better, and he was on the point of setting out for Ponte Corvo (Caserta) for the purpose of instituting a process concerning three miracles wrought by the intercession of Blessed Gabriel, which he intended to propose for his canonisation, but God willed otherwise. On December 10th, at 11 o’clock p.m. our much-loved Procurator, who lived beside him, heard a tapping on the wall which separated their cells. He at once rose and hastened to the cell of Father Germano, whom, to his horror, he found stretched senseless on the floor. In the very act of lying down to rest he had been seized with an attack of cerebral haemorrhage. The doctor, who was immediately summoned, saw that the case was hopeless. The sacrament of Extreme Unction was administered to him, and next day, helped by the prayers of his brethren, who knelt disconsolate about his dying bed, he tranquilly passed away. His body was laid in a room accessible to all, and crowds of persons of every age and condition came to take a last farewell of him whom they had loved so much, and many touched his body with articles of devotion which they had brought with them for the purpose. Many were bathed in tears, and, forgetting the repugnance which the living have of coming in contact with the dead, they kissed his hands and feet repeatedly. So great, indeed, was the devotion of the visitors that it was found necessary to place one of the religious on guard to prevent their cutting off his hair and pieces of his habit. During the two days which intervened between his death and his burial, which took place on the 13th, his face continued to wear an expression of sleep rather than of death. Father Germano was no mere specialist; his was indeed a versatile genius. He wrote on subjects so widely different as Scholastic philosophy, moral and mystical theology, mathematics, archaeology, etc. As the well-known professor, Giuseppi Antonelli, wrote to our Father General, the three Dissertations appended to his Life Gemma Galgani, in which, in a masterly manner, he refutes the false theories of those materialistic Physicians who would attribute supernatural phenomena to merely natural causes, evince an intimate and exact knowledge of the pathology of hysteria and hypnotism. His study of our basilica of Saints John and Paul led him to think that the house of these martyrs, who lived in time of Julian the Apostate, would be found under it, and the event proved the truth of his conjecture. Excavations were made, and the entire house was gradually brought to light. He published a large volume on this subject illustrated by himself; and when some Catholic critics called in question the very existence of Saints John and Paul, he wrote a reply which effectually disposed of their objections. He also rendered valuable assistance to G. B. de Rossi in his excavations of the catacombs, and he enjoyed to the end the esteem and friendship of this eminent archaeologist. As long ago as 1883 he has made an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences and Letters at Viterbo. Later he was elected Associate of the Commission of Sacred Archaeology, and on January 10, 1895, member of the Roman Pontifical Academy of Archaeology. As soon as his death became known, the letters of condolence poured in from all quarters, one of which, written by Cardinal Ferrata to our Procurator, we give here: – Rome, 13th December, 1909. Very Rev. and Dear Father Luigi, I have heard with deep and lively sorrow the news of the unexpected death of Father Germano of St Stanislaus, whom I sincerely esteemed and loved. Only last Tuesday, when leaving the Congregation of Rites, I met him in the Vatican, and we talked and joked together. In Father Germano you have lost one of the brightest ornaments of the Congregation, a man of wide learning and exemplary piety. Accordingly I join with all my heart in the sorrow and prayers are the General Curia, to whom I present my profound condolence on a loss so deep and irreparable. But we have one sweet source of comfort, the remembrance of the singular virtues of the dear and venerated deceased, which gives us not merely the hope, but the moral certainty, that the Blessed God has already received him into the Heavenly Fatherland where he has been welcomed by Blessed Gabriel and Gemma Galgani, to increase whose glory he spent all his energy and all his zeal at once untiring and intelligent. Receive, my very dear father, the sincere expression of these my feelings, together with the sentiments of cordial respect with which I sign myself Yours devotedly in the Lord, D. Cardinal Ferrata. In his work, “Letters and Ecstasies is of Gemma Galgani,” Father Germano publishes a letter written him by Gemma in which the following words occur: “You will see what I shall do when I go to heaven; I will drag you with me at any cost.” The good father appends a footnote in which he says: “I live on this hope; amidst the labours of my exile here below these words of Gemma will always be my comfort.” These words are our comfort too, and, although we deplore his loss, we are confident that the God whom he served so faithfully has already received him into everlasting glory. (CROSS, Vol. I.)