Sister M. Fiorella Schermidori
Here we sing as mortals, above, as immortals. Here in hope, above, in the reality.
Here as exiles and pilgrims, above, in our homeland. We sing as travelers sing, but journey.
We sing to relieve the harshness of the journey, but singing does not mean we indulge in laziness.
Sing and journey forward. What does it mean to journey?
To make progress in holiness. To sing and to journey.
(St. Augustine, bishop, Disc. 256)
In conformity with the charism of the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master, Sister Maria Fiorella Schermidori was initiated into the service of Liturgical singing, making use of the gift of her voice and her musical sensitivity.
Sister Maria Fiorella, Francesca Schermidori, was born on November 23rd, 1949, in Montegaldella (VI) fifth of ten children: 6 sisters and 4 brothers. She was baptized in the parish of St. Michael the Archangel on November 30th, 1949. The family, with the characteristics of a small community, united and joyful, supported Francesca’s growth in faith, communion and enthusiasm. This climate, permeated with Christian values, favored the response to the call to follow Jesus the Master in the consecrated life from her teenage years.
She entered the Congregation in Alba, on July 18th, 1959, and did her pre-postulancy with a group of the Inmaculatine. This was the name for the group of young girls who were initiated into religious life by giving them their basic studies.
Francesca made her First Profession as a Pious Disciple of the Divine Master in Rome on March 25th, 1967, and her Perpetual Vows on March 30th, 1974. She was immediately introduced to higher studies of sacred music in Rome at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music (PIMS). In 1982 she obtained the Magisterium in Gregorian Chant with a thesis entitled “Liturgy and Music in the Teaching of Father James Alberione to the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master”. She spent a few years in Paris, where she took organ lessons. From 1985 she was in the community of Via Portuense, Rome, where she guided the musical animation in the Church of Jesus Master.
Her contribution was also remarkable in the local and national Church thanks to the ecclesial bodies to which she belonged. In 1995 she was appointed director of the Religious Secretariat for five years, member of the Board of Directors of the Italian Association of Santa Cecilia (AISC). From 1999 to 2018 she was in charge of the Liturgy at the USMI (Union of Major Superiors Italy) and in 2012 appointed, by the Secretary General of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), a member of the Committee for Eucharistic Congresses on behalf of the USMI. For some years she animated the Eucharistic Celebration televised in Advent and Lent in the St. Joseph Chapel of the Agostino Gemelli Hospital in Rome.
Sister Maria Fiorella sang a great deal. She facilitated the singing of many religious women at the USMI assemblies, many bishops at the CEI assemblies, and many people at parish events. When she conducted and sang, her body danced to the tune of songs that were mostly joyous and rhythmical.
This was also a cause for her suffering because for some persons, this type of conduct did not fit with the prevailing image of a religious. But this was a gift and a charism: she radiated a rhythm and a joy that expressed a simple heart in love, without which no song can be sung.
With these gifts she was able to make anyone sing even those who considered themselves out of tune. She was able to bring out the gift of singing and tempo even to the stones. It could be said that singing had transformed her as a person.
Her secret was a deep prayer life to which she dedicated much of her day, in Liturgical Celebrations and Eucharistic Adoration. She softened before her Lord and Master in a song of love that then gave voice in the exercise of the mission. For her, music and singing were an apostolate, carried out naturally, with evangelical detachment but from heart to heart. She herself said: “How much good we can do with singing! I always think that with our voices we can convert even one person and who knows how in how many others we can place the desire for God!” (From one of her letters).
Sister Maria Fiorella creatively directed her energies to musical composition, taking as a principle the words of St. Augustine, relaunched by Blessed Giacomo Alberione: “‘Qui bene cantat, bis orat’. Singing expresses the essential devotions: to Jesus the living Master in the Eucharist, to Mary Queen of the Apostles, to Saint Paul the Apostle. They nourish the Pauline spirit. Other corresponding devotions follow. Everyone should commit themselves to understanding the meaning of the words and singing them well; so that singing may truly be the expression of internal sentiments: of faith, of hope, and of charity”. (Father James Alberione).
She composed numerous collections of songs for the Mass and conducted others written by other musicians. It is worth mentioning the immense works of musical composition of the psalms, hymns, antiphons and responsories of Lauds and Vespers of the four weeks of the Liturgy of the Hours: Laudis Canticum. Collaborating with other sisters, she assumed the responsibility for the care and direction of such music and presented it to the Italian Church. Her musical production was really very rich. There are many expressions of thanksgiving confirming the preciousness of her service.
In the celebration of her last earthly Easter, on June 1st, 2018, the songs had the fragrance of Easter. The sisters of the Rabbunì Choir, which she cared for with passion and dedication, sang to her in the final commendation the song which was composed by her and which she preferred the most:
O night lighter than the day, or night more splendid than the sun, night whiter than snow! O night that you know no darkness, or night that brings salvation, or night that opens heaven to us! The wedding night of the Church, the night that gives us life, a night of endless joy.
Her voice so full of life remains with us! With her song she helped us taste the fragrance of the angels! All throughout her life she zealously and lovingly announced Jesus, Master, and Lord. He has now revealed his face to her. Like the wise virgin, she went to meet Christ with her lamp lit.