Priestly ordination of young Gaspar

Gaspar del Bufalo was ordained a priest in Montecitorio, at the Church of the Holy Trinity of the Mission, in Rome, on July 31, 1808. This church was under the care of the priests of St. Vincent de Paul. To proceed with the ordination, it was necessary to obtain a dispensation of age, as Gaspar was only 22 years old. Gaspar already stood out for his ability to speak fearlessly and with great wisdom, easily touching hearts, for his profound spirituality and fidelity to the Church. When the time for his ordination arrived, he had already done much with the merchants who wandered through Rome, with the sick at the Hospital of Santa Gala, with the poor… Only in this way can one understand why, the day before his ordination, he was appointed Canon at the Church of St. Mark, a title corresponding to his “evangelical and missionary personality”.

It was not a solemn ordination, as the French had occupied Rome on February 2nd of that year and Pope Pius VII was taken prisoner in the Quirinal Palace. Gaspar was ordained along with three young men from other congregations.

The following day he did not celebrate his first Mass because he was invited to preach at St. Peter's Basilica on the occasion of the annual exhibition of the "Cloth of the Holy Martyrs." It can be presumed that his words were not at all sympathetic to those who manifested their earthly power and attempted to humiliate and destroy the Church, but it is also presumed that they were words full of hope, the hope that springs from the spirituality of the Blood of Christ. Only on the second day after his ordination, that is, on August 2nd, did he celebrate his first Mass at St. Mark's Church in Rome.