In Pace Christi

Fr. Luigi spent almost all his life as a spiritual director: he was a quiet sort of person easily approachable and willing to listen.

Born in S. Michele Extra, Verona on 17 February 1925, his father was Giuseppe Girardi and his mother’s maiden name was Anna Aldegheri.  Luigi attended high school in the Comboni seminaries of Padua and Brescia and joined the Venegono novitiate in 1942, during the Second World War. He took his first vows on the feast of the Assumption, 15 August 1944. He was in Rebbio for the first two years of the scholasticate and in Verona the second two. He then went to Carraia for a year and did the last year in Venegono. He took perpetual vows on 23 September 1949 and was ordained priest in Milan on 3 June 1950 by Card. Ildefonso Schuster.

After a year in Sunningdale studying English, Luigi was assigned to the mission of Sudan. Before going there, he had to study Arabic for a year in Zahle, Lebanon. He finally reached Okaru, in Bahr el Gebel (South Sudan) in 1952 and was appointed spiritual director of the seminarians. While there, he learned the Lotuko and Bahri local languages.

After carrying out this service for twelve years, Fr. Luigi was recalled to Italy and, from 1964 to 1970, was the spiritual director of the Comboni postulants in Padua and then in Asti. In 1970, he moved to Barcelona as a formator of Brother postulants. In 1972, he returned to Italy where, for one year, he served in various communities, dedicating himself to priestly ministry in Milano, Verona and Lucca. In 1981, he had the joy of returning to Africa where he was again spiritual director of the young aspirants to religious life in Kenya, first in Kiserian, then in Tartar and also in Rongai, serving the institutes founded by Fr. Giovanni Marengoni. In 1990, he went to help out in Gilgil. From 1993 to 1999, he was to be found in Nairobi as a member of the community of the provincial house but, in 1999, he again became a spiritual director for two years at Rongai and then moved to the Comboni scholasticate in Nairobi in the same capacity. In 2006, being quite elderly, he returned to Italy for medical treatment and was assigned the following year to the community of the Casavatore scholasticate as spiritual director of the Comboni scholastics.

He rendered this service for seven years and then retired to Verona to prepare himself for his encounter with the Lord who called him to himself as a coronavirus victim on 12 November 2020. For a number of years, Fr. Luigi had to cope with being almost totally blind: he always needed a magnifying glass or a computer screen with huge lettering to read his breviary or the missal. He never once complained about this or made it a burden for others.