By Alexandra Salerno
Editor-in-chief
Last week, St. Bonaventure hosted two teenagers whose relationship with the University reads like a storyline from a movie script.
In 2005, Sr. Margaret Carney, O.S.F., university president, received an email from an Italian woman named Laura Pietrobattista. She introduced herself as belonging to the family of Fr. Panfilo (Eng: Pamphilo) da Magliano, the university’s founder and first president. Sr. Margaret responded, but never heard anything again.
A year later, Sr. Margaret left for Italy to lead a pilgrimage in Assisi, Rome and the birthplace of St. Bonaventure. She left early, however, on a mission. She, along with Fr. Andre Cirino, O.F.M., and Sr. Ann Bremmer, O.S.F., set out to find Laura. The threesome had nothing to go on except the name of the Italian village and Laura’s email address.
Miraculously, they found Laura’s house, and in the hours that followed the trio met more than 20 members of the family. They viewed Pamphilo’s textbooks, an oil portrait of Pamphilo sent from America and even a marble plaque on the house announcing the place of his birth.
Three years later, various members of the family made the journey to St. Bonaventure to help celebrate the university’s 150th anniversary.
Among those family members were Giulia and Flavia, nieces to Laura, and daughters of Ester and Ferdinando Pietrobattista. In the years following the anniversary visit with their family, the girls grew into teenagers eager to make their own experiences in the Enchanted Mountains.
From Sept. 1-10, the girls lived in Doyle Hall and spent time on campus meeting with students and faculty. They took trips to local areas including Rochester, Buffalo and Chautauqua Lake. They took in everything Bonaventure, including walks on the Allegany River Trail and dinner in the Hickey Dining Hall.
“The most meaningful part of hosting Giulia and Flavia was realizing that for 155 years this family from Abruzzo in Italy has been connected to this campus and that they honor that history down to a twenty-first century generation,” Sr. Margaret said. “Having that kind of respect for what one’s family means and achieves is a real lesson for all of us.”
Despite a difference in culture and language, both girls brought their special personalities to campus while interacting with members of the community.
Giulia, 19, loves to read and calls Oscar Wilde’s “Portrait of Dorian Gray” her favorite novel. She will continue her higher education by majoring in languages at university beginning in October. She plans to someday be a court translator.
“I love languages, and I just think they are useful,” she said.
Her sister, Flavia, 17, loves to play electric guitar and listen to rock. She loves music by Guns and Roses, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Metallica. When the time arrives for Flavia to choose a university, she doesn’t count St. Bonaventure out. She said she is especially fond of the journalism and mass communication program.
“The people (of St. Bonaventure) are nice and funny, and I like the small classes,” she said.
During their stay, the girls took trips with various faculty members, including a trip to Chautauqua Lake with Alva Cellini, professor of modern languages and director of women’s studies.
“It has been a pleasure hosting the girls,” Cellini said.
The girls attended various classes during their stay, including Cellini’s Spanish class.
“I admired the way in which the faculty of our modern language department unselfishly stepped in to help host the young women,” Sr. Margaret said. “Bob and Kim Donius were also a big part of making them feel at home.”
Bob Donius, professor of Clare College, hosted the girls in his home with his wife, Kim ,who speaks fluent Italian.
“Hosting them (Flavia and Giulia was) just a delight because they’re great people, and they’re very gracious and fun,” Bob said. “They’re part of our story. They’re connected to us. We make a big deal out of the Bonaventure family, rightfully so, and they’re definitely a part of the Bonaventure family.”
Bob and Kim visited the family in Italy in July, and Kim keeps in regular contact with the girls’ parents.
Donius is not the only community member to visit the family. Connections range from a pilgrimage in 2008 involving many Bonaventure community members to other individual visits including Jean François Godet-Calogeras, Br. Ed Coughlin, O.F.M., Brenda McGee, Patrick Panzarella and Mike Chiarello.
“Father Ponfilo is remembered with esteem by that community and even more so by the family,” Donius said.
Sr. Margaret said by the end of their visit, the girls felt in touch with their Bonaventure roots.
“I think that the courtesy and sensitivity that Flavia and Giulia showed to all who helped host them touched me,” Sr. Margaret said. “They wanted to be respectful, and it was clear that by the time they left they were feeling a deeper personal connection—one they achieved on their own, not because of their parents and grandparents.”
