Brother Sforza

In 1892, Giacomo Lombardi (1862-1934) emigrated to the United States of America. There in the city of Chicago, he was converted to Christ in 1894. In 1907 he was baptized with the Holy Spirit and the following year he was baptized in water.

In 1908, he came to Italy. Here in Rome he contacted some members of the Waldensian Church and of some other Evangelical Churches to speak to them about the Pentecostal message hoping that God would begin to manifest His power in the midst of those who already knew the Gospel.

However, his efforts were useless for he was rejected. Particularly one day he was cast out with violence by a pastor of one of those Churches, who could not stand Lombardi contacting some of the members of the Church he was shepherding.

He was sad and disappointed, but while he was walking along Via del Corso (one of the most important streets in the centre of Rome), all of a sudden the Lord said to him: ‘Reach that man walking before you and speak to him about My Name’.

Giacomo Lombardi obeyed that order; he reached that old man and said to him, authoritatively: ‘God has sent me to bring you a message’. The old man replied: ‘Anyone who comes to me in the name of the Lord I will never cast out’ (Roberto Bracco, Risveglio Pentecostale in Italia [The Pentecostal Revival in Italy], Roma 1956, page 11). The two men walked together till Piazza Cavour, where they stopped and talked for a long time about the baptism with the Holy Spirit. That man, whose surname was Sforza, accepted the message of Giacomo Lombardi and after a few years he died and went to be with the Lord.

Informations and quotes taken from: ‘Cristiani Oggi’ [Christians Today], 1988, year VII, n° 24, pages 1-3; and from an article titled Nascita del Movimento Pentecostale in Italia [The Birth of the Pentecostal Movement in Italy] on ‘Risveglio Pentecostale’, 1956, n° 11, pages 5-6

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