New Book on Surrender Novena's Author Amplified My Zeal

Roxane Salonen, a devotee of the Surrender Novena authored by Father Dolindo Ruotolo, reviews a newly translated book on the Servant of God’s life and legacy.  

Jesus, I Surrender Myself to You: The Life of Don Dolindo Ruotolo

By Grazia Ruotolo and Luciano Regolo

Published by TAN Books

I’ve been a devotee for many years now of the Surrender Novena, and while curious about the little Italian man attributed with its authorship, until recently, I was largely ignorant of Father Dolindo Ruotolo beyond a brief description on the prayer card.

I jumped quickly at the opportunity to review the newly translated book on his life and legacy, Jesus, I Surrender Myself to You, but when the hardcover book arrived, I flipped through the 320 pages and sighed. “This could take a while.” So many other tasks were staring me in the face.

I had a pre-arranged retreat scheduled at a Carmelite monastery a few days later, and upon arriving, I began reading. Around 48 waking hours later, I closed the book, now filled with underlines and notes, and smiled.

But how to explain adequately my appreciation of this transformative book, I now wondered? That night at Vespers, I prayed for a way, and while listening to the sisters’ chants, a butterfly flashed in my mind.

Butterflies don’t enter into any of the excerpts by Father Dolindo in the book, co-authored by his niece and an Italian journalist, with translations by Maria Palma Smith. And yet, I knew they could help.

Last September, while visiting our oldest son in Phoenix, we toured a butterfly pavilion. When I entered the sun-lit area where butterflies of all colors and sizes were floating and flitting around me, I gasped. “It’s beautiful!” I felt like I was in a movie with special effects, but they were real.

Reading this book was like that. I’d long admired the fruits this prayer has brought into my life, but learning about its author felt like walking into that butterfly rotunda, because suddenly, instead of observing just one butterfly, or one aspect of this author, I was surrounded by the many gifts of this holy man, and greatly enriched in my understanding of how he could have produced such a sublimely edifying prayer.

Moved by his Fidelity

Reading about this humble, poor, but incredible priest’s life made me want to be holier myself. He was so grounded in his faith, so focused on God, and so intent about bringing Jesus and Mary to others that he rarely slept more than a few hours a night, and rarely ate.

In the past, hearing about saints who flagellated themselves confused me. It seemed an extreme way to get God’s attention. But reading about Fr. Dolindo Ruotolo’s life helped it make sense to me. After all, he was battling the evil one daily as he brought Jesus to the world. In order to do that well, he would have to be empty of everything that might prevent him from being spiritually fit. His spiritual muscles would need to be ready to face God’s greatest enemy with vigor.

While most of us are not called to those lengths, learning about the tenacity with which he lived out his priesthood, through many trials, helped me understand why priests are so in need of our prayers. Father Dolindo had a great love for the priesthood, understanding well its high calling and the critical need to stay grounded.

In a passage from his diary concerning the role of the consecrated, written shortly before his death in 1970, he wrote an address to fellow priests:

Your plan for the priestly life can have only one focus: Jesus in you and you in Jesus…You are no longer a man of the world … and if you do not want to be defeated, you must remain distant from (the world) in everything: in your thoughts, in your life and in your customs.

Though needing still to be available and close to the people as he tirelessly demonstrated every day, priests are set apart, he insisted, not for admiration but for the battle.

Moved by his Humanity

Despite the seriousness with which he addressed such topics, Father Dolindo “still maintained his characteristic humor, self-deprecating wit, and lively Neapolitan spirit,” according to his niece Grazia Ruotolo.

Throughout the book, we come to see that as steadfast as he was in striving toward holiness, he didn’t distance himself from the suffering Christ, nor suffering humanity. He began poor and was adamant he would die poor, too, requesting one time to be buried in a “pasta box,” indicating a simple wooden coffin, like the large containers used to transport pasta in those days.

A Wikipedia summary notes that Father Dolindo lived in such great poverty that his own family turned away from him.

He opened his arms without fear to embrace contagious sick people, caressing and kissing them. He offered himself as a victim soul for mankind, and was afflicted with many sufferings, including complete paralysis for the last ten years of his life.

Born in 1882 and dying in 1970, Father Dolindo lived in a time that was, strikingly, not unlike ours; a time of unrest and war, and of vast changes occurring in both the culture and Church. “The world has become a field of death,” he once wrote, adding that “no voice can awaken it if a great mercy does not first lift it up.”

Ultimately, he discovered the key to how to deal with the trials we face as humans through what some have called “the spirituality of surrender,” which provided the impetus for the novena that has been embraced more and more in our day — a time in which surrender to God in light of our powerlessness over many things is as vital now as then.

The Life Behind the Message

I think more than anything else, learning about the man behind the message, and about his life from its earliest stages and onward, was simply inspiring. Stories are powerful, and it’s not surprising to find that the person who thought up the novena that has been so instrumental in my life — yes, I might even credit it, or him, with saving my husband’s life twice — isn’t just an ordinary soul, but someone with an extraordinary faith; who could read souls like his contemporary and friend, Padre Pio, and even bilocate; whose conviction and confidence about the Lord’s work in our lives was so bold that the Holy Spirit seemed to act upon his requests and forthright hopes simply because he had put so much trust in God to answer his prayers.

Reading Jesus, I Surrender Myself to You was a gift, a treasure, that I don’t plan to just file away on my bookshelves with so many other titles that made a fleeting impact. This one will be referred to often, and, I have a feeling, lead me to other writings of this sweet new mentor, who lovingly referred to many in his life as “little angels.”

Over the years, I have had four different spiritual directors, several of whom have made a powerful impact on my life. But I can honestly say that reading this book was like sitting at the feet of the best spiritual director and discovering my soul changed.

Now that I’ve been properly introduced to Servant of God Dolindo Ruotolo, I’m happy to realize I’ve only just begun to dip into the many works in print of this prolific and prayerful soul.

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Copyright 2026 Roxane Salonen
Images: (top) detail from cover