GIOVANNI BATTISTA SIMONI. — Accepted Carthusian writer, born in Rovigo on 8 Dec. 1887, died in Florence on 14 Nov. 1942. Ordained priest in Padua on 27 July 1911, he soon afterwards entered the Carthusians.
He served as assistant in the Charterhouse of Vedana and as prior (1933–38) of that of Calci near Pisa. He dedicated himself to the sanctification of the clergy, especially through devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, of which he was perhaps the greatest and most convinced apostle in the first half of the 20th century.
In his writings on this devotion, he sometimes treated supposed opponents with excessive severity, branding them all as Jansenists and exaggerating their number in a work entitled Non praevalebunt (Padua 1932), perhaps the least successful of his publications. His other works, however, achieved great success: Adveniat regnum tuum (Turin 1924); Sì scire domum Dei! (2nd ed., Padua 1928); Oportet illum regnare (Monza 1928); Resurgat frater tuus (ibid. 1929); Mante in dilectione mea (8th ed., Padua 1944), translated into many languages and reprinted about 40 times; Monita salutis (Trento 1943). He also wrote various other pamphlets and many articles for journals, especially in Vita cristiana, under the pseudonym Giovanni Senzaterra.