Finding Supreme Joy

In 1910, Vincenzo di Francesca, a native of Sicily, was a Protestant minister in New York City when he found a book with no title page. He read the book, which sounded like the Bible to him. When he finished reading, he prayed and received confirmation it was a work of God. His heart, he said, palpitated “as if it would talk,” and he felt a “supreme joy that human language finds not words to [describe].”

Di Francesca began using the book in his preaching. When asked by his superiors to destroy it, he refused and was barred from preaching. He later returned to Sicily, where he continued to share the book as often as he could.

In 1930, while studying a dictionary, he found an entry for the word Mormon. Recognizing it as a name in his mysterious book, he searched for more information and soon found the address of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He wrote a letter to Franklin S. Harris, president of the university, who passed the letter on to Heber J. Grant, President of the Church. Di Francesca began corresponding regularly with various Church leaders in Salt Lake City.

For decades, di Francesca wrote and occasionally requested that someone travel to Italy to baptize him. On several occasions, priesthood holders traveling in Italy invited di Francesca to meet them and be baptized. Political tensions and wars in Europe, however, repeatedly prevented a meeting.

During World War II, cut off from communication with the Church, he continued to preach from the Book of Mormon and other Church materials, many of which he translated and shared with his neighbors. After four decades of waiting, di Francesca was finally baptized on January 18, 1951, in the Mediterranean Sea. Five years later, he traveled to the temple in Switzerland and participated in ordinances there.