Catholic Saints • Verona • Oxford • 1947 to 1954
Saint Giovanni Calabria and C. S. Lewis: The Priest Who Wrote to Him in Latin
An Italian priest who spoke no English and an Oxford scholar who wrote Latin like a Roman found each other through a book about a devil.
Calabria and Lewis at a Glance
- Who
- Saint Giovanni Calabria (1873 to 1954), founder of the Poor Servants of Divine Providence, and C. S. Lewis (1898 to 1963), the Oxford and Cambridge scholar and author
- Where
- Verona, Italy, and Oxford, England
- How it began
- Calabria read the Italian edition of The Screwtape Letters and wrote to Lewis in 1947
- Language
- Latin, because Calabria did not know English
- How long
- Until Calabria died in 1954; Lewis then kept writing to Calabria's successor
- What they discussed
- Prayer, Christian unity, the state of the world, and requests for prayer
- Afterward
- Calabria was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1999
A Priest in Verona
Giovanni Calabria was born in Verona on October 8, 1873, into a poor family, and he never forgot what poverty was like. As a young priest he gave himself to abandoned boys and to those the city had forgotten, and in 1907 he founded a community that became the Poor Servants of Divine Providence. Its whole character was trust: do the work in front of you and let God supply what is needed.
That trust is the thread that runs through everything he did, and it is worth holding onto, because it explains why a busy priest with no English and a house full of the needy would sit down to write a long letter to a stranger in England.
Part II
The Book From Oxford
C. S. Lewis had published The Screwtape Letters in 1942, a book of letters from a senior devil to a junior one about how to ruin a human soul. It was a surprising success, and it was translated. An Italian edition, Le lettere di Berlicche, found its way to Don Calabria.
He read it and was moved to write to its author. The sources agree on the order of events: the book came first, and the letter was his own idea. He wrote in 1947.
Part III
Why Latin
Calabria did not know English. Lewis did not claim any Italian worth writing in. They had one language in common, and it was the language of the Church for fifteen centuries, so the correspondence took place in Latin.
For Lewis, a scholar of the old literature who had spent his life among Latin authors, this was an easy and even delightful choice. The result is a set of letters written in a language neither man spoke at home, which gives them a plain, careful, almost formal warmth.
Part IV
What They Wrote About
The surviving letters were later collected and translated into English as The Latin Letters of C. S. Lewis. They cover a range of subjects: prayer, including the question of asking God for things; Christian unity, a matter close to both men in a divided Europe; the news of the day; and, more than once, a simple request that the other would pray.
One letter that Lewis wrote to Calabria in the spring of 1948 is often quoted. The times were anxious, he said, with talk of wars and rumours of wars, and yet Christians should still rejoice. He thought people spent too much time brooding over the state of nations and the world. Christians are not kings or senators, he wrote, and should not overlook the neighbor next to them, such as the poor man who knocks at the door, because the Lord is present in that man and is to be served in him.
It is the kind of advice that would have pleased a priest who had spent his life with the poor.
Part V
Calabria's Death and What Followed
Calabria died on December 4, 1954. His correspondence with Lewis did not end with him. Fr. Luigi Pedrollo, who succeeded him in the work, wrote to Lewis to tell him of the death, and the two men kept writing to each other until Lewis died in 1963.
Pope John Paul II canonized Giovanni Calabria on April 16, 1999. He is remembered by his congregation and by the Church as a priest who held to Providence in hard times, and an enduring friend of those who had nobody.
Part VI
What the Letters Show
It is easy to describe this friendship as a meeting of two famous names, but the plain facts are better. A priest read a book, was helped by it, and took the trouble to say so in the one language the two of them could share. Over the years the letters stayed on matters of faith and care.
The record does not give us more than that, and it does not need to. Lewis wrote as a man who valued his reader, and Calabria wrote as a man who believed that God arranges even the meeting of strangers.
Part VII
Timeline
- 1873Giovanni Calabria is born in Verona on October 8.
- 1907Calabria founds the community that becomes the Poor Servants of Divine Providence.
- 1942C. S. Lewis publishes The Screwtape Letters.
- 1947Calabria reads the Italian edition and writes to Lewis in Latin.
- 1948Lewis writes the spring letter about the neighbor at the door.
- December 4, 1954Calabria dies; the correspondence continues with Fr. Luigi Pedrollo.
- 1963Lewis dies.
- April 16, 1999John Paul II canonizes Giovanni Calabria.
Trust, Written Down in Latin
Calabria wrote to a stranger because a book helped him, and he trusted God with the rest. If you would like a saint of Providence in your home, the prayer card is a small place to begin.
View the Prayer Card →Frequently Asked Questions
