Albuzzano, education Angelini was born in
Albuzzano. He was the sixth son of Giovanni Battista and Maria Maddalena Bozzini (or Bosini), peasants from whom he learned the rural agricultural traditions. Under the care of the archpriest of Albuzzano, Cesare Prelini (1843–1915), he prepared for his high school studies which he carried out at the Episcopal Seminary of Pavia. He was ordained a priest on 24 June 1910.
Cesena, first writings From 1910 to 1915, he was called to teach literature at the Seminary of
Cesena by the local bishop,
Monsignor Giovanni Cazzani from Pavia. In the Romagna town he met and met almost daily the literary critic Renato Serra librarian of the
Malatestiana Library who brought Angelini closer and closer to literature, introduced him to the cultural environment of the
Voce and marks his itinerary on the path of fragmentism intrinsic to the Florentine magazine. Angelini's debut in a literary sheet took place in
Romagna, year X, 1913, no. 1, January 15, p. 4-20, with the essay
Un poeta della critica dedicated to Serra. Other interventions from that period (critical essays, lyric prose and poems) appeared in magazines at the limit of local circulation such as
La Romagna,
Il Corriere Cesena,
Il Cittadino. Serra died on 20 July 1915, at the age of thirty, in the First World War on
Podgora. Angelini will keep his memory throughout his existence, publishing numerous essays dedicated to him in magazines, in commemorative editions.
La Voce, First World War In 1915 Angelini was in
Pavia and wrote the first two essays for the white
Voce of De Robertis on
Pascoli,
Pascoli moderno (no. 9, April) and
Pascoli e Croce (no. 13, July). Also in the Florentine magazine, in the commemorative number dedicated to Renato Serra (no. 16, October), appeared his contribution
Il primo critico puro, in which there is already the intention of art and literature that he will exercise throughout his life, remaining faithful to Serra's teaching and to his ethical and cultural lesson. From March 1916 he participated in the
First World War as a soldier in the health service and, from August 1917, chaplain of the
Alpini in the
Sette Comuni battalion, then in the Bassano battalion, and, from January 1918, in the Intra battalion. On a mission to
Albania, in the summer of 1919, he approached Alì Mohamed Murtezza Karageorgevič, Mutfì of
Antivari: the exchange and common reading of religious books - the
Gospel, the
Koran - resulted in an episode that seemed to anticipate
Pope John XXIII's ecumenism.
Torre d'Isola, prose writer, militant critic In October 1919, discharged, he moved to
Torre d'Isola, coadjutor of his brother Giuseppe who was a pastor there, and taught literature in the Episcopal Seminary of Pavia. He has been collaborating since 1920 with critical essays and lyrical prose in the milanese magazines
Il Convegno by Enzo Ferrieri,
Il Carroccio,
La Festa, later in
Pègaso and
Pan by
Ugo Ojetti. In 1923 he published his first work
Il lettore provveduto, a collection of literary studies on 19th and 20th century writers (first published in
Convegno magazine) with a preface ''Discorso con l'anima mia
. Three years later, in 1926, La Civiltà Cattolica'' (1926, no. 3, pp. 532–533) reported an anonymous criticism accusing Angelini of not giving «exact account of the moral and religious value of the authors»; with particular reference to the expressions of esteem present in the chapter concerning
Giovanni Verga, an author who did not fall within the canons of Catholic readings.
Friends Correspondence continued and expanded, with
Antonio Baldini,
Benedetto Croce, Giuseppe De Robertis,
Giacomo Debenedetti,
Enrico Falqui, Tommaso Gallarati Scotti, Carlo Linati,
Marino Moretti. He also began an acquaintance with the vernacular poet Angelo Ferrari (1874–1971), for whose second collection of poems
Un bris ad ciel (1924) he collaborated in the choice of texts. In January 1924, following his intervention in the magazine
La Festa concerning
Ada Negri, which he had read since his years in the Seminary, he received a letter of thanks from her from which a relationship of friendship and correspondence began. Vittorio Beonio-Brocchieri frequented. He had friendships and correspondence with
Giuseppe Prezzolini, whom he met in Rome in 1919 in the offices of the
Voce. He established a relationship with
Giovanni Papini, to the point that Papini confided and anticipated his conversion to Christianity to Angelini. It was Papini himself who wrote an open letter in a magazine with esteem, which would bring Angelini credit in the literary world.
Pilgrim in the Holy Land, pastor In December 1932, he made his first pilgrimage to the
Holy Land by sea (the travel diary was subsequently presented in installments - January, February 1933 - in the pages of
Corriere della Sera); returning there in March 1937. In 1938, after his brother died, appointed pastor of
Torre d'Isola.
The Borromeo Since 1939 he was rector of
Almo Collegio Borromeo, it is the oldest university college in Italy founded in
Pavia by
San Carlo in 1561. He remained there for 22 years. From 1941 to 1945, the Borromeo was transformed into a military hospital: Angelini maintained contact with the students involved in the conflict, and in any case supervised the life of the college. In 1946, in the difficult period of reconstruction, in order to (re) bring students and ex-students closer to the college, he established the Alumni Association. From 1946 to 1955 he promoted the publication of the
Saggi di umanismo cristiano, Quaderni dell'Almo Collegio Borromeo, signing himself as editorial secretary: a quarterly in which, together with the contributions of already known authors, wrote also young students and ex-students of the Borromeo itself, of the
Collegio Ghislieri and of the
Normale di Pisa - who would reach prominent places in the world of culture. Angelini of his own published essays, prose and poems. He hostes personalities of different orientations for conferences, so that they could speak to students and to the citizens of Pavia, who were also always invited. He wrote some prose dedicated to the college:
Questo Borromeo,
Piazza Borromeo and
Luna sul Borromeo.
Assisi, domestic prelate In August 1946 he took part in the religious courses of the Pro Civitate Christiana in
Assisi, which he would follow year after year until 1960. Assisi was a favorite destination of the priest from Pavia, where he met fellow friends-coursesists
Antonio Baldini,
Piero Bargellini,
Silvio D'Amico, Nazareno Fabbretti,
Giovanni Papini,
Daniel-Rops, Michele Saponaro, and others. On 21 July 1950 he was appointed domestic prelate.
Luigi Porta street, Sant'Invenzio street After the rectorate in Borromeo, from 1961 to 1976 he led a private life in Pavia, first in Luigi Porta street then in Sant'Invenzio street to which he reserved autobiographical pages. He reproposed his texts in new editions: in a continuous and repeated work he corrected a previous mannerism and an excessive literariness. It can be said that Angelini completely revised his work, he "rewrote" himself. He published a school commentary on
The Betrothed for Principato (1962). Edit the
Bible for
Fabbri in handouts (1962). He translates sacred scriptures: the
Song of Songs for Scheiwiller (1963), the
Acts of the Apostles for
Einaudi (1967) and the Apocalypse for
Franco Maria Ricci (1969). He was an elzevirist of
Corriere della Sera, essayist in
Nuova Antologia. On 14 October 1964 he received an honorary degree in Letters from the University of Pavia. On 11 May 1968, at the castle of
Bolsena, he was awarded the «
Emilio Cecchi Prize» reserved for critics for the volume
Capitoli sul Manzoni, vecchi e nuovi, an anthology of his writings about
Manzoni published in 1966 by
Mondadori. On 28 May 1972 he was awarded the first edition of the "Targa d'Oro
Jean Giono" from the
Rotary Club of
Voghera. In April 1975, at the age of 88, with the rector of the
Almo Collegio Borromeo, Angelo Comini, and some students, he went to Rome for the twenty-fifth
Jubilee; on 2 April he was publicly welcomed by
Pope Paul VI in the courtyard of S. Damaso. On the evening of 27 September 1976, at the age of 90, he died in his home in Sant'Invenzio street. Although on several occasions he had openly expressed the desire for his tomb located in the
Holy Land, he is buried in the cemetery of
Torre d'Isola, next to his parents and brothers, as he requests in his will dated 10 September 1975. ==Works==