“The Adventist Messenger is one hundred years old and, as its director, I am honored to wish it ‘Happy Birthday’”. This is how Francesco Mosca begins the editorial of the July-August issue of the magazine that dedicates its cover to this special anniversary. Over the years, the magazine has helped strengthen the faith of believers in Italy. We do not see any wrinkles, despite its venerable age, because it has been updated and renewed over time. But let’s start from the beginning, when it had another name.
The beginnings
The first copy of the then Adventist Magazine was published on August 1, 1924, in the form of a mimeograph with three sheets of paper written on both sides. Its discovery happened by chance. It was in a trunk, among the books of an elderly Adventist. We discover from the data that, in that year, there were 250 Adventists in Italy and they met in 13 churches.
“‘With this first modest letter, we begin the edition of the Adventist Magazine, as we want to call it for now. For the moment, since the circulation of this letter is minimal, we cannot but present it in this way to our members, but we hope that, in a short time, its development will multiply, and we can have a newspaper of respectable proportions. Your brother in the Message, D.G. Werner’. This is how the then superintendent, equivalent today to president, signed the first article,” writes Giovanni De Meo, journalist, archivist, and former director of the Messaggero, in his article on the origins of the monthly magazine.
In 1925
“We knew the 1925 issue of the Adventist Magazine, No. 4,” Mosca continues. “It spoke of the fourth annual Congress of the Italian Mission, held in Genoa from 9 to 13 September, and focused on the theme of organization in the Church”.
And De Meo explains: “The magazine is made up of 11 sheets mimeographed on both sides and has as its subtitle the text of Revelation: ‘Here is the patience of the saints, here are those who observe the commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus’ (14:12). At the center of the header, there is a reproduction of a somewhat particular geographical map”. In fact, the borders of Italy were different before the Second World War.
The copy also bears the signature of the person who owned this newspaper for years: the Bible reader, Maria Vanzetta (1908-1996), who dedicated her life to spreading the gospel in various Italian cities.
In the pages of this 1925 issue, space is given to the Genoa Congress and we learn that “the number of members of our field has continued to grow to over 300: which gives an increase of 200% since the Italian field was reorganized in 1921... a house is being built that will serve as the offices and warehouse of our Publishing House, and later also for the printing plant, if God wills it,” reports De Meo.
We are thus offered the image of a Church intent on structuring itself to be more effective in the mission. The other pages contain the reports of the various departments and “a very rich newsletter composed of 52 very different pieces of information that update the reader on a very active Adventist world, full of enthusiasm and confident in the imminent return of Christ”.
From 1926 to the war
In 1926, the periodical was printed on eight pages with a quarterly frequency. “The Adventist Magazine was the ancestor of the Adventist Messenger, which would then take this name in 1930, continuing the numbering of the years of the previous magazine,” Mosca specifies.
The then superintendent (president) of the work, D. G. Werner, expressed himself in relation to the need to have an internal Adventist organ: “It was right and it was time that we had an internal periodical in which one could read the news of our work, in general, and that of our churches, in particular,” the director reports in the editorial.
In 1932, the magazine had a monthly circulation. Six years later, in 1938, with the direction of Pastor Franco Sabatino, it was completely renewed in graphics and in content, which made it richer. With the Second World War approaching, there was a shortage of paper so, from the third issue of 1942, the monthly magazine came out in a reduced version, with only six pages.
“In those dark years, Il Messaggero was the spiritual advisor, the bearer of comfort and courage, the ideal link for communities and isolated members separated by the events of war. The last issue came out of the press on July 15, 1944, when fighting was already beginning around Florence”.
The monthly magazine returned after about two years of silence. “It was suppressed immediately after the tragic days of the liberation of Florence, along with many other newspapers, by superior orders dictated by political prudence and the consequences of war; that paper of ours was suppressed, but the message it brought to the churches and souls scattered throughout Italy, which enthralled in a common effort and incited a common hope, could not, no, be suppressed, ever, by any law and for any reason”.
To read the original article, please go here.
