Silvestro Guzzolini was an Italian Catholic priest who founded the Silvestrini. He served as a canon at Osimo, but had to flee to a hermitage when he respectfully criticized his bishop’s unethical behaviour. He remained in his hermitage, determined to create a religious congregation based on the Order of Saint Benedict, inspired by a dream of Benedict of Nursia. His order obtained papal authority from Pope Innocent IV, allowing it to spread significantly across Italian cities. His beatification was verified in the 1260s following his death in 1267, and he was canonised a saint in 1598.Born to Gislerio and Bianca Guzzolini in Osimo, Silvestro Guzzolini was sent to the Bologna and Padua colleges to study jurisprudence and law in 1197. Finding his studies unsatisfactory and too secular, he felt drawn to the ecclesiastical state and abandoned his legal studies in favour of theological and scriptural studies.
When he returned home in 1208, his father, enraged by his change of purpose, refused to speak with him for ten years. After being ordained by the diocesan bishop in 1217, Guzzolini accepted a seat as canon at Osimo. He devoted himself to pastoral work with such zeal that he irritated his bishop, whom he had politely chastised for the scandals produced by the prelate’s irregular lifestyle.The prelate threatened to remove him from his position, but Guzzolini decided to quit the secular world, while officiating at a funeral, he witnessed the corpse of someone who had formerly been known for their beauty.
In 1227, he retired to a deserted location far from Osimo and lived in extreme poverty until the landowner, lord Corrado, saw him and offered him a better location for his hermitage. The dampness pushed him away from the place, and he eventually settled in Grotta Fucile, where he built a convent for his future religious order. In this location, his penances were particularly hard, as he survived on raw plants and water and slept on the bare ground. Saint Bonfilius, a hermit who initially came from Osimo spent his final years in a hermitage near Filottrano. It is said Saint Bonfilius might have inspired him. It is near this hermitage that Sylvester later established one of the first monasteries and most likely penned the first biography of Bonfilius.
Disciples rushed to him, seeking his guidance, and it became critical for him to choose a rule. Guzzolini chose Benedict of Nursia as his spiritual leader after having a vision of him in 1231, and constructed his first abbey on Montefano near Fabriano after dismantling the remains of a pagan temple there.
On June 27, 1248, he acquired an edict issued by the Pope called papal bull from Pope Innocent IV that confirmed his order as valid. By the time of his death, Gozzolini had established eleven monasteries with this approval. He died of a terrible fever on November 26, 1267.His remains were eventually disinterred and placed in a shrine, which can still be found at the Monte Fano church. Pope Clement IV beatified Guzzolini, and Pope Clement VIII canonised him in 1598.
