FACULTY
SPOTLIGHT
“A Light to Our Community”
Martha Demerly
C
onversing with Dr. Ilaria L.E. Ramelli is like
following a high mountain stream: at first, there is
the bubbling rivulet, then the rapid cataract and,
finally, the reflective pool. Her voice immediately
welcomes her visitor with a light and joyful tone.
Her faculty colleague at Sacred Heart, Fr. Daniel
Jones, speaks of her “ebullient, joyful personality”
as a “light to our community, an enormous
witness” to her faith in the “living sacrifice of
which St. Paul speaks in Romans 12:1-2.”
Indeed, it is clear that Dr. Ramelli has been
following the light of truth to “discern what
is the will of God, what is good and pleasing
Dr. Ilaria L.E. Ramelli
and perfect.” Since childhood she has suffered
progressive scoliosis and immune deficiencies
that compromise her physical strength and ability
to stand, walk, even sit, or combat infection.
Nevertheless, she thinks of her accomplishments
a “witness to the saving blood of Jesus.”
Dr. Ramelli speaks of her formative years in
which she witnessed the profound and simple
faith of her parents’ mothers, her “spiritual
grandmothers.” Her parents gave her the name of
St. Hilary of Poitiers, a fourth century Father and
Doctor of the Church. Because of her condition,
she relied on her father Roberto to transport her
and to guarantee that she received the education
needed for scholarship. She speaks reverently of
his devotion to her and of her loss when he died
when she was sixteen. After her father’s death,
Dr. Ramelli devoted her life to Jesus through
study and prayer as a consecrated virgin.
Her accomplishments, which Dr. Ramelli
rushes over like the mountain cataract, were
achieved during intense scholarly work over
two decades and brought her to Sacred Heart,
where she is Bishop Kevin Britt Endowed Chair
in Dogmatics/Christology. Her curriculum vitae
exceeds two hundred pages; she has directed
international research projects; served on boards
of scholarly journals; taught courses and delivered
lectures in prestigious universities in Europe,
America, and Israel. In 2013, her monograph,
The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis: A Critical
Assessment from the New Testament to Eriugena
was published. The first systematic scholarly
study of the history of the Christian doctrine of
apokatastasis (i.e., restoration to an original state),
it surveys the writings of the New Testament as
well as the Fathers from Origen of Alexandria
to Johannes Scotus Eriugena, the last patristic
philosopher.
Citing her impairment, Dr. Ramelli notes that
she requires an inordinate amount of rest, which
she accepts as a gift, saying, “My body insists
that I be quiet, so Jesus can teach me to pray.”
When asked about her aspirations for her work
at the seminary, she expresses her ambition to
see the emphasis on patristics develop into the
establishment of a doctoral program. Such a step
would mean an even stronger New Evangelization
program because, as Dr. Ramelli observes, after the
Apostles, the Fathers were the formative evangelists
of the Church during its first thousand years.
Most of all, Dr. Ramelli is happy with the
friends she has made in Detroit—the seminarians,
lay students, priests, and faculty members with
whom she feels the unity of those devoted to the
work of Jesus. Her greatest hope is that people will
not remember her disabilities as much as they see
her as witness to the redemptive work of Jesus.
Martha Demerly writes regularly for Mosaic and just completed her MA in Theology at Sacred Heart.
FAll 2014
SAcred HeArt MAjor SeminAry
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