Women of Naples whose heart knows how to beat for all great, noble,
beautiful things, oh! women of Naples, possessing fervently and
efficaciously the great virtue of piety, women of Naples, always kind
and tender, whatever be your condition, either brilliant or obscure,
whatever be your fortune, great or modest, whether God has granted you
the supreme goods of life, or whether your life runs its simple and
shaded course, you to whom the unfortunate ones never turn in vain,
to whom the words of Christ, "who gathers to him a poor man, gathers
me", are a law of the heart, oh! women of Naples, look around you,
and see how thousands and thousands of poor unfortunate beings, men,
women, and children, your own brethren in Christ, have been stricken
down by this tremendous calamity. They had a home and they have been
obliged to flee from it not to remain buried under its ruins: they had
an orchard and it is gone, they had a field and it is all buried under
the stones, they had work and they cannot work anymore, they had some
kind of industry, and all this is gone! They are poor, exiled people,
escaping for life, and notwithstanding all help, notwithstanding the
great impulse of charity, they are too many, they are all a population
of poor people, of starving people of naked people, and more must be
done for them. Each of you women, either rich or poor, must open her
arms and heart to these poor miserable creatures. For even if they
have a shelter, they are often without any bed; if they have a bed,
they are perhaps without bread or without clothes. Women, Neapolitan
women, let your help be given in all the possible forms and ways,
gather up to your heart these poor unfortunate beings, just as if
they represented the figure of Christ, and be generous to them in the
kindest and noblest of charities. Look after these poor people, they
are everywhere, in every public institution, at Granilis, barracks
at the Albergo dei Poveri, and we cannot do all for them, if you
Neapolitan women don't give your part in bread, in clothes, in all that
is needed to feed a poor man, and to shelter him from cold. Neapolitan
women, good Christians, in these days of mourning, be a heavenly smile
to these poor unfortunate ones. Good Christian women celebrate this
Easter in the closest brotherhood with those who suffer.
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Have you heard? In Granilis barracks from three thousand to three
hundred people from the Vesuvian comunes, have been sheltered, and
among them there is an immense number of terrified and sorrowful
women, and little children. There are a great many, perhaps thousand
poor little creatures escaped from death in their mothers' arms,
in the terrible nights when the storm of cinders, stones, and fire
was at its worst.--The noble impulse of the soldiers there, works
wonders, and the 19th infantry is certainly first in this noble and
generous hospitality.--In this barrack, the people who escaped from
the conflagration have shelter and food, and colonel Belluzzi, and his
officers are entirely given to this high work of charity. But these
poor people have no clothes to change, and the children especially are
almost in a naked condition. What can these poor soldiers and officers
do to clothe these destitute children? It is your task, Neapolitan
women, now that you know it to gather up from your house all the coats,
dresses, linen covers, all that is superfluous, and send it to the
miserable people at Granilis barracks. You all have girls and boys, and
your children have plenty of clothes they don't wear any more. Give
them to these unfortunate ones, to these babies who are dear to their
mothers as yours are to you! Gather up everything you can, bundle it
up and send it all to the barracks. All will be useful, everything is
useful. Also they who have no money to give, have a dress, a shift, a
pair of shoes to dispose of, and thus you also, if you are not rich,
can show your heart in this useful and simple way. Great committees are
a great thing, but their work is too slow for too many reasons! Without
committees, without signing subscriptions, give your motherly charity,
give bread and clothes, let it go from your hand to other hands, from
heart to heart, at once, just as Christ has prescribed. And in doing
this noble work, you Neapolitan women, will feel your soul expand with
emotion and tenderness thinking that each of those little creatures
you will dress with your own children's clothes is a little unknown
brother to them, and you will bless God to have been able to perform
one of the noblest and highest works, one of the highest duties which
belongs to our soul.
April 12th 1906.