Nicolò Rusca “Hate the error, but love those who err” Introduction by Pier Carlo della Ferrera and Essays by Alessandro Botta, Claudia di Filippo Bareggi, and Paolo Tognina “Hate the error, but love those who err” Nicolò Rusca was born in Bedano, a small vil- papal regulations of those days. lage on the outskirts of Lugano, in April Fr Rusca's first years in Sondrio were marked 1563. His father, Giovanni Antonio, and his by his zeal as a priest who was determined to mother, Daria Quadrio, both of whom came improve the spiritual and material standards from distinguished families residing in the of the parish of Saints Gervasio and Protasio, area of Lake Como and the Ticino, sent their where conditions were still fraught with diffi- son for his first schooling to Domenico culty, both because of the rather singular Tarilli, the parish priest of Comano. After political climate of those days, and because of learning the basics of grammar and rhetoric, the behaviour of his predecessor, Francesco combined with an education that was strong- Cattaneo, which had been open to criticism. ly imbued with traditional Catholic princi- ples, Nicolò continued his studies, first at The Archpriest of Sondrio's work in defence Pavia, and then at the Jesuit College in Rome. of Catholicism against the spread of what in those days was called Protestant heresy took the form of energetic steps to restore regular observance of the sacraments (above all con- fession) and the incisive preaching with which he upheld the principles of Catholi- cism inherent in the mediation of Christ and the value of the mass in the public disputa- tions with the followers of the reformed church that took place at Tirano and Piuro between 1595 and 1597. During this period, Fr Rusca promoted the re-founding of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament (1608-1609). As the years went by, the pres- ence of Fr Rusca began to be a thorn in the side of the leaders of the Protestant Leagues (Bünde). Towards the end of 1608, the Archpriest was accused of complicity in the attempt to murder the Protestant preacher Scipione Calandrino, a capital offence. After After a few months, in 1580, he attended the first surreptitiously taking refuge at Bedano, Collegio Elvetico, founded in Milan by his birthplace, and then in Como, with Cardinal Carlo Borromeo for the specific pur- Bishop Archinti, Fr Rusca returned to Previous page: Portrait of Don pose of instructing and educating in the Sondrio the following year, since the League Nicolò Rusca, tenets of orthodox Catholicism young priests magistrates had, in the meantime, ascer- painted in 1852 by the Sondrio artist Antonio from frontier areas that were most exposed to tained his innocence and collected a substan- Caimi (Sondrio, the spread of Protestantism. Having complet- tial sum of money (representing a fine and Collegiate Church of Saints Gervasio ed his studies, in the course of which he was the payment of legal costs) which the people nd Protasio) able further to improve his knowledge of of Sondrio volunteered to defray. Left: Greek and Hebrew, on 20th October 1586 Thus the priest resumed and intensified his Frontispiece of the Nicolò Rusca became a deacon and was pastoral activities in defence of Catholicism, first biography on ordained priest on 23rd May 1587. which developed into strenuous and tena- Rusca Nicolai Ruscae S.T.D. A few months later he was sent to minister to cious opposition when, at the beginning of Sundrii in Valle Tellina the parish of Sessa, a village in the Malcan- 1618, the Protestants instituted, at Sondrio, a Archipresbyteri anno MDCXVIII Tuscianae in tone, west of Lugano, and, two years later, college open to the representatives of both Rhetia¸ ab Hereticis ¸ necati was appointed Archpriest of Sondrio. He was religions, though essentially under the con- Vita & Mors – written in 1621 by Giovanni installed in September 1590, having been trol of Protestant teachers and preachers. Battista Bajacca duly approved by the municipal council of However, Fr Rusca exerted such an influence Above: that town and by popular election, ratified over his parishioners that no Catholic attend- The house where the following year by the ecclesiastical ed the college, which, indeed, was never able Nicolò Rusca was authorities. He then went to Pavia, to take a to perform its function. born at Bedano in Canton Ticino doctorate in theology, as required by the This circumstance gave the Leagues and the [55] Nicolò Rusca pro-French-Venetian faction – which saw 19th century. When the Abbey was abolished, and feared the possible political implic- the relics were placed in the library, where ations of Fr Rusca's work in support of they lay forgotten until 1845, when, thanks Austro-Spanish efforts to gain control of the to the intercession of the Bishop of Como, Valtellina – an opportunity to unleash a Monsignor Carlo Romanò, and the Canon of decisive attack on the Archpriest of Sondrio. Sondrio, Giacinto Falcinelli, authorization According to the descriptions of the was given for them to be transferred to the Catholic biographers of the day, on the Valtellina, to the Sanctuary of Sassella. night of 24th July 1618 sixty armed men, Meanwhile the Bishop of Como himself sent after surrounding the priest's house, burst the following request to the Vatican: "To the into his bedroom, pulled him out of bed and, glory of God, in veneration of the Priest who leaving him barely time to put on his habit, gave his soul for his flock, for their good, tied him on the back of a mule with his head therefore, and to support the dedicated work hanging backwards. The following day he of excellent parish priests in my large and dif- was taken, via Valmalenco and the Muretto ficult diocese, as well as to console me, I Pass, through the Engadine and thence to earnestly ask that the relics be solemnly car- Chur, where he was shut in the attic of a ried to the Archpriest's church in Sondrio hostelry and kept a prisoner for almost a and placed in a niche, there to be exposed month, before being moved to Thusis. with lighted candles and revered, especially There, segregated in a small cell, he was on the day of his martyrdom, as has been subjected, at the beginning of September, to done since time immemorial, in the place a summary trial, accompanied by brutal tor- where they used to lie". Upon receipt of an tures, which his accusers used to get him to affirmative answer, on 8th August 1852, Nicolò Rusca's remains were solemnly borne to the Collegiate Church of Sondrio and placed at the beginning of the nave, to the right of the main door, where they remain to this day. At a time of violence, often perpetrated ruth- lessly and with savagery by both the opposing factions, Fr Rusca stands out essentially as a man of peace. His reasonableness and moder- ation, for all his firmness and convictions, are a striking contrast to the excesses of funda- mentalist and intransigent radicalism, of which the court that condemned him is an obvious example. If we are to believe the words of Bajacca, Fr Rusca's first biographer, confess to crimes he had probably never com- whose writings are nowadays endorsed even mitted. But "resolutely and fearlessly, with- by Protestants, the Archpriest of Sondrio out any hesitation", he rejected all accusa- "strongly disapproved of all those extreme tions as being false and baseless. Exhausted and injurious utterances that, while they by the brutality and violence of his ill-treat- might do no more than cause bitterness and ment, which his delicate health could not offence to heretics, in no way contributed to stand up to, Nicolò Rusca died on 4th their spiritual welfare". September 1618. The day after his death, the Archpriest of Intent upon winning back the faithful to The mule-track Sondrio was already being venerated as a Catholicism, and not on persecuting or elim- leading to the Muretto Pass, saint and his mortal remains immediately inating those who had embraced the new in the upper became the object of devotion for Catholics. religion, he succeeded in enlisting the good- Valmalenco. Fr Rusca passed In the summer of 1619, Fr Rusca's remains will of all people. A priest who was a good through here, were exhumed by night and taken secretly to shepherd, he strove to encourage civilized on 26th July 1618, the Abbey of Pfäfers, north of Chur, where attitudes and behaviour, to promote moral on his way to prison at Chur and Thusis they remained until half-way through the discipline; the faith he conceived and sup- [56] “Hate the error, but love those who err” ported he conveyed in words, by preaching, hearing confession, teaching the catechism, and stressing the importance of the word in religious practice; his attitude to the new religion was not that of the counter-reform- ing firebrand, but of a peaceful Catholic reformer. "Hate the error, but love those who err" is a principle traditionally ascribed to the Archpriest of Sondrio Nicolò Rusca: for in him, faith and Catholic confidence in the truth that combats and hates error mani- fested themselves in open-mindedness and the willingness to enter into dialogue of a man who truly loved those who err. 16th-century picture of Pfäfers Abbey, where Fr Rusca's mortal remains were kept from 1619 to 1845 [57] “Hate the error, but love those who err” Politics, Religion, and Society in the Valtellina under the First Grisons Government The territory of the Free State of the Three Leagues in the second decade of the 17th century.