1885 – 1955 (April 16)
Aurelio Marini was born on October 22, 1885 in Piancarani, Teramo, Italy, the son of Simone and Maria. He joined the Discalced Augustinians in his native Italy and remained with them up until ordination to the subdiaconate, and then in 1908, transferred to our Order. After his novitiate year in Carpineto Romano, he professed vows on December 25, 1909, and was ordained in Rome on January 1, 1910. The following December he left for the Italian Mission in the United States.
Father Marini was very active at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Philadelphia from his arrival in 1910 until 1933 when Cardinal Dougherty suppressed the parish. From 1920 until its closing he had been pastor. He then went to Saint Nicholas of Tolentine Church, Philadelphia, and in 1935, to Holy Rosary Parish in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Father Marini was named pastor of Our Lady of Pompeii Parish in Dobbs Ferry, New York in 1939 and served there in that capacity until 1952 when ill health forced him to resign.
Father Marini was well liked by confreres and parishioners for his kindness, patience, charity, and his calm and gentle demeanor. Under his leadership efforts were made to foster vocations to the Order among Italian Americans. In his free time he authored a book in Italian based on his journeys to the Holy Land, entitled Autunno Mediterraneo. From 1928 until 1934 he served as Commissary Provincial of the Vice Province. On November 27, 1948, he was appointed by the Prior General as counselor to Commissary Provincial, Mortimer Sullivan, who was at the same time Provincial of the Province of Saint Thomas of Villanova. Father Marini became a naturalized citizen on April 16, 1917.Father Marini died on Easter Saturday, April 16, 1955, at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica, New York, after having been bed-ridden for almost an entire year. His Solemn Requiem Mass was celebrated at Saint Mary’s Church, East Vineland, New Jersey, after which burial took place in the Augustinian Plot of the parish cemetery.
