Antonio Ruffini
Antonio Ruffini a life for others
His youth
Ruffini was born in Rome in 1907 on the 8 December, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. He was named in honour of St Anthony, the eldest of three boys and lived in a devout family with a very caring attitude to the poor. His mother died when Antonio was very young. Antonio only had a primary school education but, from an early age, he prayed with his heart rather than from books. He had his first vision of Jesus and Mary when he was 17 years old.
He saved his money and went to Africa as a lay missionary. He stayed for a year visiting all the villages, entering the huts to take care of the sick and to baptize the newborns. Poco dopo torna in Italia per il disbrigo di alcune pratiche rimaste in sospeso. He went back to Africa a few more times to help the people of those remote villages. Immediately administer one of the many gifts received from God, the charisma of xenoglossy (the gift of tongues).
The Charisms
His ability to speak and understand those foreign languages, without ever having studied them, left everyone stunned. It is said, among those who saw and heard him, that he also perfectly understood the dialects of the various tribes. His proverbial figure as a healer is echoed among the villages, in fact, Antonio was enough to ask a few questions to the people about their ills. God was with him, the herbal remedies that Antonio elaborated and distributed to them was only the means through which the Almighty Father bestowed healings. He tells us: “I don’t know what I’m doing, it’s all instinctive, I feel inside of me doing this”. The fame of “doctor” soon spread to other villages.
The stigmata
Bloody stigmata manifestation takes place on August 12th, 1951. He was back from work as a representative of a packaging paper company, along the Via Appia, on the road from Rome to Terracina. He is driving his Topolino, the historic and economical car of the post-war Fiat brand. It is very hot and Ruffini, taken by a strangely unbearable thirst, decides to stop the car on the edge of a clearing to go in search of a fountain which is nearby.
Immediately he sees a woman at this spring of water, barefoot and covered with a black cloak. Think of a local peasant woman coming to drink. As soon as Antonio arrives, the woman tells him: «Drink if you are thirsty». Ruffini brings his hands closer to those of the woman who helped him collect the water to drink a few sips, but sees that the water turns into blood.
Antonio without understanding what was happening to him, he turns to the lady, she smiles at him and immediately began to talk to him about God, about his love for men. Antonio is very surprised to hear those sublime Words, especially those referring to the Sacrifice of the Cross.
When he wakes up near his car he thinks he has had a vision and Antonio, moved and delighted, approaches the car to resume the way back. He is about to bring the typical “needle” key to the ignition switch, but he realizes that he has big blood bubbles on the back and palms of his hands, as if they were about to bleed.
Wounds and charity
A few days later, he wakes up in the night due to a loud noise of wind and rain, gets up from his bed to close the window, but sees to his amazement that the sky is full of stars and the night seems peaceful. He goes back to his room to go back to sleep, but immediately notices the presence of an unusual humidity at his feet. With amazement he realizes that wounds have also appeared on his back, on the back and on the soles of his feet, such as those of the hands.
From that moment Antonio dedicated himself completely to men, to charity, to the sick and to the spiritual assistance of humanity. Antonio Ruffini kept the stigmata on his hands and feet for over 40 years. Wounds examined by dozens of doctors who have not confirmed any scientific explanation. Stigmata of the hands and feet were total, from the back to the palm / sole, however they never became infected.
His earthly epilogue as a Franciscan tertiary
After a few years Antonio joins the Third Order of St. Francis and decides to take a vow of obedience. It is said of him that he was a very humble man. Whenever someone asked to see the stigmata, murmured a short prayer, kissed the crucifix, he took off his gloves and said: «Here they are, Jesus gave me these wounds and if He wants can also take them off».
Ruffini and the Pope
Father Paul Kramer wrote these comments about Ruffini a few years ago: «I often went to visit Antonio, in the host house, for many years. In the early 1990s, someone asked him this question point blank: “Is John Paul II the Pope who will make the consecration of Russia?”. He replied: “No, isn’t John Paul II and will not even be the one after, but the one still after, he who will consecrate Russia to Our Lady”».
Shortly thereafter he fell seriously ill, in bed he repeated vehemently that the wounds on his hands, similar to those of Christ, were a gift from God. Antonio Ruffini returns to the God’s house at the age of 92, after having spent most of his life dispensing advice, to heal people not only in body but also in spirit, to pray and to follow the rule of obedience of St. Francis of Assisi. Those who have had the grace to know him remember his simple greeting, which was: «Peace and good brothers and sisters!».
Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows
Venerable Pope Pius XII authorized the blessing of a chapel, in the place where Ruffini received his stigmata on the Appian Way, also known as Regina Viarum, one of the most important roads in ancient Rome.
Don Giuseppe Tomaselli, Salesian Priest and Exorcist, he was a great thaumaturge and friend of Antonio, he wrote a booklet about him with the title, Sotto il cielo di Roma, in which he asserts that Ruffini also received the gift of bilocation.
How to reach the place of the apparition:
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