At 11.00 pm on 19 September of the year of the Lord 2023, at the age of 101, surrounded by the affection and care of his brothers,
CHERUBINO PORZI, TOR
completed his transitus in the convent of S. Maria della Salute in Rome. The doctor confirmed his death in the early hours of the following day.
Fr. Cherubino was born in Morico di San Ginesio (MC) on 20 February 1922 to Vincenzo Porzi and Antonia Forti in the territory of the Commune of San Ginesio (MC). He received baptism on February 23 of the same year.
From documents in the provincial Tabularium, he entered the college of Francavilla d’Ete on 9 October 1933 and here he took the habit in the convent of Francavilla d’Ete on 27 September 1937. In the convent of Montefranco (TR), he lived the year of novitiate and made his first Religious Profession on 4 October 1938. At San Ginesio on 8 October 1944, he made his Solemn Profession in the hands of Fr. Michele Venditti, delegate of the Provincial Minister Fr. Giuseppe Cosimi.
In the same city he was ordained a priest by Giuseppe D’Avack, Archbishop of Camerino, on 29 June 1946.
From 1946 to 1950, he was prefect of postulants in the convent of the Blessed Virgin of Piratello in Imola; after a short stay in the convent of S. Antonio di Francavilla d’Ete in 1951 he was transferred to the community of S. Maria della Pace in Massa Martana (PG) where he carried out the ministry of parish priest of S. Sebastiano in Castel Rinaldi.
From 1954 to 1973 he resided in the convent of S. Francesco in San Ginesio, where he was Local Minister, responsible for postulants, chaplain of two different female religious communities, and where above all he dedicated himself to the education of youth at the internal Gymnasium at the convent and at the Teachers’ Institute of San Ginesio.
From 1973 to 2002 he worked at the Roman Curia in the then Archive of the Council for Public Affairs of the Church, then Archive of the Section for Relations with States (Second Section of the Secretariat of State). For this service on 16 October 1994 he was awarded the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice by the Holy Father John Paul II.
In Rome he lived in the convents of S. Maria della Salute and Ss. Quirico and Giulitta.
A man of profound culture and erudition, especially in the field of philosophy and the Latin and Greek languages, he cultivated his spirit of prayer and his intellectual interest until the last days of his earthly life.
On the occasion of his hundred years of life, he retraced his long ministry in this way, with the dialectical spirit that distinguished him:
rather, I move on to reflect on whether and how my long life and my work have faithfully responded to the purposes of my priestly and religious consecration and in particular I ask myself: the faithful of Imola (Piratello), of Francavilla d’Ete, of Massa Martana (Castel Rinaldi), of San Ginesio, of Rome (Santi Quirico and Giulitta and Primavalle) were they able to see in me a true “messenger” of the Lord, a true shepherd of souls? Were my many words the echo of the evangelical Word or an empty, silent, ineffective flatus vocis? Were they enlightening for the purposes of a truly life of faith? Have the commitments in parish work, in associations, in our minor seminaries, in the two colleges, male and female, been a sowing of truth, have they contributed to a future of dignified life, illuminated by sincere Christian faith? Did the Sisters of the two communities, Venerini and Poor Clares, towards whom I had a spiritual responsibility, see in me the person of a true consecrated person? The teaching, never interrupted, in our seminars, in private schools and occasionally in public schools, which put me in contact with so many young men and women, has always been, for me, a precious opportunity to inculcate eternal values, not only of culture, but above all of an honest and dignified Christian life?
[…]
At the end, however, of this earthly wandering, it is hope that comforts: that non-human hope, which is not a “maybe”, a “who knows”, “a “we’ll see” but that divine hope, which affirms his truth on the infallible words of Jesus himself: “Whoever believes in me will have eternal life”. What I really feel now is the need to be a beggar of prayer, so that I can sanctify at least this last piece of life that the Lord will want to grant me. For this reason, I ask Him, with all my heart, to be animated by that spirit of detachment from every regret and every earthly nostalgia, and driven by that ardent, irresistible desire, which St. Paul still expressed with all the strength of ‘love: “Cupio dissolve et esse cum Christo”.
The funeral of Fr. Cherubino, presided over by Fr. Daniele Randazzo, Vicar Provincial, was celebrated in San Ginesio on 23 September 2023, with the participation of numerous brothers, his sister, loved ones, friends, many former students and faithful, who celebrated the seed of Christ who his presence and his ministry were in their lives.
Fr. Cherubino rests in the cemetery of San Ginesio, in the fulfillment of that hope that he had entrusted to the last meditation he was working on: “I will be enveloped by the light of another Sun, which never sets and does not allow “goodbye”, because everything is, and always will be, perennial splendor.”