Descendents of Blessed Louis Guanella ready for Rome

Published: October 22, 2011

By Malea Hargett
Editor

Malea Hargett

Brother and sister, T. Alan Guanella and Laura Guanella Ward, both of Little Rock, will be in Rome Oct. 23 to see one of their relatives, Blessed Louis Guanella, be canonized by Pope Benedict XVI.

Malea Hargett

Brother and sister, T. Alan Guanella and Laura Guanella Ward, both of Little Rock, will be in Rome Oct. 23 to see one of their relatives, Blessed Louis Guanella, be canonized by Pope Benedict XVI.

Blessed Louis Guanella has always had a special place in the hearts of Laura Ward and T. Alan Guanella. While he is not well-known in the United States, the Italian priest is very important to the siblings.

Blessed Louis Guanella will be canonized a saint by Pope Benedict XVI on Oct. 23 and the siblings along with their former associate pastor and several family members will be there in Rome to watch the historic event. Blessed Louis Guanella is a nephew of their great-great-grandfather.

The Guanella children were raised always knowing that one of their relatives was on the path to sainthood and hopefully one day would be officially proclaimed a saint.

"As far back as I can remember, Grandmother kept a framed picture in her dining room of a priest and written underneath his picture it said Beato Luigi Guanella," Alan Guanella, a member of St. Edward Church in Little Rock, said. "She told us this was Blessed Father Luigi Guanella and to pray to him. She always said he only needs one miracle to become a saint."

Laura Ward said, "All of our life we have prayed for that miracle. We never knew if he was going to be canonized."

Blessed Louis Guanella
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Much of what the family knows about Blessed Louis Guanella and his connection to his family in Arkansas came from Guanella's research over the past couple of decades.

"As a child I was always fascinated by the oral history of my older relatives. The stories about the Guanella side were very few because my grandfather had died early in life and he and his brother George were raised at St. Joseph's Orphanage (in North Little Rock)," he said.

Guanella's research intensified in 1991 when he spent three months in Italy tracing his family tree back to the 1500s and meeting extended family members.

"Our great-great grandfather Tommaso Guanella came to the U.S. in 1830 from Fraciscio, Italy, via Bristol, England," Guanella said. "He met Clementina Monti in New York and they married. Tommaso was the brother of Lorenzo Guanella, Blessed Guanella's father. This made our great-great-grandfather Blessed Guanella's uncle. Our great-grandfather Giorgio was first cousin to Blessed Guanella."

The Guanella family arrived in Arkansas in 1907 when their great-grandfather Giorgio and his wife, Mary Caterina, settled in Tontitown. The Guanella's grandfather, Thomas Joseph, was born there in 1909.

The family history and the Italian language were not preserved once the family moved to Tontitown. It also was clear that St. Joseph has been playing a part in the Guanella family history for many years.

After Mary Caterina died of tuberculosis in 1911, Giorgio took his two sons to live at St. Joseph Orphanage and asked the Benedictine nuns to help care for them. Giorgio worked there as a caretaker.

"He died on St. Joseph's feast day March 19, 1915. His cousin, Blessed Guanella, also died that same year," Guanella said.

"My grandfather met my grandmother, Margaret Dussex, in Conway where she lived. Grandmother's family ... belonged to St. Joseph's," Guanella said.

Margaret Dussex Guanella, who died in 2009, had a great devotion to Blessed Louis Guanella and kept his memory alive for her children and grandchildren. Margaret Guanella would often invite friends and even strangers to join the Pious Union of St. Joseph, which was started by Blessed Louis Guanella in 1914.

While living in Little Rock and attending St. Edward Church, Margaret and Thomas Joseph Guanella had two sons, Thomas Joseph Jr. and Joseph Anthony.

The Guanella children's father is Thomas Joseph Jr., who is known as Tom.

"We belonged and went to school at St. Theresa before moving Christ the King Parish," Guanella said. "Uncle Joe and Aunt Eleanor belonged to St. Theresa and then to St. John in Hot Springs. They have two children, Tony and Karen."

When the pope announced in February that he would canonize Blessed Louis Guanella, his Arkansas family immediately began to make plans to attend the canonization. Laura Ward and her husband, Bradley, asked their former associate pastor who studied in Rome, Father Erik Pohlmeier, to join them. Also attending are their parents, Tom and Patty Guanella of Shreveport and their other brother, David, and his wife, Carolyn Guanella of Frisco, Texas.

Ward, a member of Christ the King Church in Little Rock, said it is a dream come true to be able to travel with her husband and family to Rome, which she has never visited.

"My whole entire life we said we are going to Rome for the canonization," she said.

Having a canonized saint in their family is an honor, the siblings said.

"We are very fortunate to be related to him," Alan Guanella said. "He definitely has given us an example as far as his faith and his love for the Eucharist and being his brother's keeper and caring for the less fortunate."

"We have to be more on our toes, I guess," Laura Ward joked.

Blessed Louis Guanella

What is the Pious Union of St. Joseph?

The union was formed on Feb. 12, 1914, and approved by Pope Pius X. He asked to become the first members and declared St. Joseph Church in Rome as the primary center of the union. The union's goals are to promote devotion to St. Joseph, patron of a good and happy death, and to pray for the suffering and dying.

Blessed Louis Guanella died on Oct. 24, 1915, and was declared blessed by Pope Paul VI on Oct. 25, 1964. Before his death, he founded two orders, the Servants of Charity and the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence. They minister to the poor and mentally handicapped in Italy, the United States and around the world.