(continuation from previous article)

2. Some traits of the theological virtues in Fr Rua

2.1. Fr Rua man of faith
            His love for God was rooted in the fundamental choice for Him: “…he lived in continuous union with God… The very close union with God was matched by complete detachment from the things of the world and disregard for anything that did not serve to glorify God and save souls… It seems to me that the union with God was so consummate in him that he had nothing but this generous, ardent, continuous thought: to love and make God loved, God always, God in everything, no rest in this, never diversion, always this sublime uniformity. God. Nothing but God.” This love for God was the profound motivation of his every action and took the form of doing God’s will exactly, promptly, joyfully and perseveringly. The love of God was the motivation for his many actions and actions and sustained his great commitment to the promotion and cultivation of priestly and religious vocations.
            The source that nourished this union was prayer: “Fr Rua found his rest in prayer” (Fr Francesia). “Fr Rua in prayer, in contact with God, in rest found renewed strength to implement day by day what was the father’s programme made one hundred per cent his own by his most faithful son: I seek souls and only souls.” This source was nourished in the Eucharist and in filial love for the Virgin Help of Christians. The life of faith was expressed in the intimate union between prayer and action, nourished by the practice and spirit of mental prayer, which for him was “the essential element of the life of the good religious”, to such an extent that even during an earthquake tremor while everyone was fleeing “he alone had not moved and had remained there at his usual place, in his usual attitude.” With meditation on the Word, it was the Eucharist that was the animating fire. The Eucharist, celebrated, adored, visited and kept in one’s heart: “Let us form a tabernacle in our heart,” he would repeat, “and let us always be united to the Blessed Sacrament.” He expressed an intense faith and piety for the Eucharist, nourished by a series of recommendations and instructions: visits, adoration, genuflections, recollection.
            Fr Rua as a man of God and faith was distinguished by a testimony that was made credible not so much by eloquence, but by the intimate conviction that transpired from his words and above all from his life. It was nourished by a knowledge of the Scriptures and a great familiarity with the Church Fathers: sources he drew from in their original Greek and Latin texts. This formation manifested itself as an adolescent in his commitment to teaching catechism and Christian instruction not only in its ordinary forms, but also in missions and spiritual exercises, considering them constitutive elements of the Salesian mission to which all its members were bound, as Fr Amadei testified: “ have found in his letters explicit declarations that all Salesian priests, clerics, and coadjutors should willingly lend their work in catechising because,” he said, “if they neglected  catechism classes they would be failing in their vocation.” The work of teaching catechism was the true purpose of the Salesian institution and propagation of oratories, avoiding the risk of reducing them to mere recreation centres or sports centres. This commitment to the propagation of the faith animated the great front of missionary action, another constitutive element of the Salesian charism, which he sustained with intense apostolic ardour and with considerable employment of people and resources. A great instrument for spreading the Salesian spirit and supporting Salesian works, especially in mission lands, was the circulation of the Salesian Bulletin.

2.2. Man of hope
            The virtue of hope kept the ultimate goal, paradise, alive, and at the same time sustained the daily commitment to do good and fight evil, as he often told young people: “Be good, trust in God and paradise will be yours.” He wanted people to deserve this reward, especially by fleeing guilt and by doing God’s holy will every moment. This hope translated daily into an unconditional trust in divine Providence as Don Bosco’s third successor, Blessed Philip Rinaldi, attested: “Son and follower of the Venerable Don Bosco, the servant of God lived by the day, he did not hoard funds, the founder’s principle being to always trust in Providence, even in material things.” And Fr Barberis said: “In conversations, in admonitions, in the letters he wrote, the most insistent exhortation was trust in divine Providence. Once I remember him telling us: ‘It does not cost the Lord any effort to provide us with the necessary means; He is so good that when He sees the need, He will do it.’” Even in very great hardships, he always maintained an imperturbability and tranquillity that also infected others.

2.3. Man of charity
            His love for God was manifested in his love for his neighbour: “He spoke to the lowly as he did to the great, to the poor as he did to the rich, always seeking to do good. Indeed, it seemed that the more lowly a person was, the more affably he treated them and sought their good.” This aspect grew in a special way after Don Bosco’s death, considering it an inheritance he had received from Don Bosco and wanted to pass on to future generations:
            “The great charity that informed the heart of our beloved Don Bosco of holy memory set in motion by example and word the spark of love that God blessed had placed in mine, and I was electrified by his love, so that, if succeeding him I could not inherit the great virtues of our holy founder, his love for his spiritual children I feel the Lord granted me. All the days, all the moments of the day I consecrate to you… therefore I pray for you, I think of you, I act for you like a mother for her only-begotten son.” This is a text of great value that reveals how the spiritual inheritance received is the fruit of a profound communion of souls, which sets off that vital spark that unleashes a fire of true charity. Fr Rua is aware of the difference in gifts between himself and Don Bosco, but he truthfully affirms that the core of the spirit has been passed on: a charity communicated vitally and by word that drives to a life offered and consecrated for people with traits of maternal love.
            Love of neighbour took concrete form in an ordered, liberal and generous love, with a special predilection for the poorest young people and those at spiritual, moral and material risk, and with a preference for the poorest and most destitute geographical areas such as southern Italy. Charity was exercised with great dedication in the ministry of reconciliation, to the point of exhaustion, especially during spiritual exercises, because he would say: “These are my harvests.” Similarly, he devoted himself to the ministry of advice and consolation. Everyone was the recipient of his love, even enemies and detractors. His concern for his neighbour was inspired by a great kindness and gentleness, typical of the Salesian tradition and aimed at protecting the good reputation of people and neutralising the disruptive expressions of slander and judgement: “In his good manner, without offending, he tried to stifle from the beginning the discourse as soon as he realised it was misdirected. When he then caught some criticism directed at a known person, he never failed, almost as if to destroy the effect of the criticism itself, to point out the good qualities, the works, the merits of the person being criticised.”
            He had a solicitous and personalised love for every confrere in the Congregation, with the heart of a caring father and the gaze of a true overseer of his flock: “He knew the confreres in the individual houses one by one, even the most distant ones, and was interested in the needs and greatest profit of each one, as if he were under his gaze in the Oratory.” A concrete example was the dispatch of spare linen for confreres engaged in military service. This amiable fatherhood excelled in the exercise of spiritual charity: “I found him always ready to listen to me; with a smile he took an interest in what was close to my heart, and he knew how to advise and guide me in such a way that my soul was completely at peace.” The example of a life lived in charity led him to write to confreres at odds with one another: “Love one another as confreres, and pray to the Sacred Heart of Jesus to kindle in all of you that sacred fire that he came to bring to earth, the fire of charity.”
            Such love took the form of predilection for young people: “He was interested in the health and needs of each one…. Fr Rua was for each of us the good father, who lived for us, so that even the humblest and lowliest could freely turn to Him. “A love that knew no bounds: missionaries, emigrants, people in need, workers, members of the Salesian Family, young workers, distinguishing himself for his active interest in labour disputes: “unemployed workers came to him, and he recommended them according to need to the various industrialists.” Every day after hearing so many people in the confessional, he would spend many hours receiving numerous people: “Every day I observed many people whom I myself brought to an audience with the servant of God, people who came to ask for material and moral help, recommendations, etc.” The servant of God treated everyone affably, took an interest in their cases, and helped everyone as much as he could.” Truly as Fr Saluzzo said, “His heart was open to all good.”

“Be good, trust in God and paradise will be yours” (Blessed Michael RUA)

            Blessed Michael Rua (1837-1910), Don Bosco’s first successor, as studies, research and conferences held on the occasion of the centenary of his death have shown, goes beyond the traditional cliché of being a ‘copy of Don Bosco’, sometimes with less attractive traits or even in opposition to the founder, to release a more complete, harmonious and sympathetic figure.
            Fr Rua is the consecration and exaltation of Salesian origins. It was testified during the process: ‘Fr Rua is not to be placed in the ranks of Don Bosco’s ordinary followers, even the most fervent, because he precedes them all as a perfect exemplar, and for this reason all those who want to know Don Bosco well must also study him, because the servant of God made a study on Don Bosco that no one else can make.’ No one like him understood and interpreted the founder in his educational and ecclesial action and spirituality. Fr Rua’s vocation and ideal were the life, intentions, works, virtues, holiness of the father and guide of his youthful, priestly and religious existence. Frn Rua always remains of vital relevance to the Salesian world.

            When it came to finding the rector for the first house outside Turin, at Mirabello Monferrato in 1863, Don Bosco chose Fr Rua “admiring in him, in addition to his exemplary conduct, his indefatigable work, his great experience and spirit of sacrifice that one would say was unspeakable, as well as his good manners, so much so that he was loved by all.” More directly Fr Cerruti, after affirming that he had found in the young rector the portrait and image of the Father (Don Bosco), testifies: “I always remember that tireless industriousness of his, that prudence so fine and delicate of government, that zeal for the good not only religious and moral, but intellectual and physical of the brothers and young people entrusted to him. These aspects summarise and embody the Salesian motto ‘work and temperance’. A true disciple of Don Bosco verbo et opere, in an admirable synthesis of prayer and work. A disciple who followed his master from his earliest childhood, doing everything by halves, assimilating in a vital form the spirit of his charismatic origins; a son who felt generated by a unique love, like so many of the first boys of the Valdocco Oratory, who decided to ‘stay with Don Bosco’” and among whom the first three successors of the father and teacher of the young excelled in a paradigmatic way: Fr Michael Rua, Fr PaulAlbera, Fr Philip Rinaldi.

1. Some of the traits of Fr Rua’s virtuous life, an expression of continuity and fidelity
            It is a matter of the tradition of one who receives a gift and in turn passes it on, trying not to lose the dynamism and apostolic, spiritual and affective vitality that must permeate institutions and works. Don Bosco had already intuited this: “If God told me: Prepare yourself that you must die and choose a successor because I don’t want the Work you started to fail and ask for this successor as many graces, virtues, gifts and charisms as you think necessary, so that he can carry out his office well, which I will give him all, I assure you that I wouldn’t know what to ask the Lord for for this purpose, because I already see that Fr Rua already possesses everything.” This was the fruit of assiduous frequentation, of treasuring every piece of advice, of continuous study in observing and noting every act, every word, every ideal of Don Bosco.

Exemplary Conduct
            The testimony of Salesian Brother Giuseppe Balestra, Fr Rua’s personal assistant, is significant. Balestra was very attentive to the aspects of daily life and in them he was able to grasp the traits of a holiness to the full that would also mark his religious journey. Even today in Don Bosco’s rooms one can see the sofa that was Blessed Michael Rua’s bed for 20 years. Having succeeded Don Bosco, and taken his place in this room, Fr Rua never wanted his own bed. In the evening, Brother Balestra spread two sheets on that sofa, which Fr Rua used to sleep on. In the morning, the sheets were folded and the sofa resumed its usual shape. “I have the conviction that the servant of God was a saint, because in the 11 years that I had the good fortune to live right next to him and to observe him continually, I have always and in all things found the greatest perfection; hence my conviction that he was most faithful in the fulfilment of all his duties and therefore in the most exact observance of all the Commandments of God, of the Church and the obligations of his own state.”.

1.2. Tireless work, tireless industriousness and extraordinary activity
            It seems incredible that a man with such a frail body, with health that was anything but florid, could have been able to undertake such an intense and untiring activity, so vast, taking an interest in the most diverse sectors of the Salesian apostolate, promoting and implementing initiatives that if they appeared extraordinary and daring at the time, are also a very valid indication and spur today. This untiring industriousness, a typical trait of Salesian spirituality, was recognised in Fr Rua by Don Bosco from his youth, as Fr Lemoyne attested: “It is true, in the oratory one works a lot, but it is not work that is the cause of death. There is only one here in the Oratory who should, without God’s help, die of fatigue, and that is Fr Rua, who always continues to work harder than the others.”
            This dedication to work was an expression of the spirit and practice of poverty that singularly distinguished Fr Rua’s life and actions: “He loved poverty immensely, which was a most welcome companion to him from childhood and he possessed the spirit of it perfectly… He practised it with joy.” The practice of poverty, expressed in many forms, emphasised the value of the example of life and of taking divine Providence into account. He admonished: “Persuade yourselves that to a much higher end my exhortations tend, it is a matter of ensuring that the true spirit of poverty, to which we are obliged by vow, reigns among us. If economy is not taken care of, and too much is given to our bodies in treatment, in clothing, in travel, in comfort, how can we have fervour in the practices of piety? How can we be disposed to those sacrifices that are inherent to Salesian life? It would be impossible to make any real progress in perfection, impossible to be true sons of Don Bosco.”

1.3. Great experience and prudence of governance
            Prudence defines better than any other quality the virtuous profile of Blessed Michael Rua: from his earliest childhood he set out to follow St John Bosco, hastening under his guidance to embrace the religious state; he formed himself through assiduous meditation and diligent examination of conscience; he eschewed idleness, worked tirelessly for good and led an irreproachable life. And as an adolescent he remained so as a priest, educator, vicar superior and successor of Don Bosco.
            In the sphere of a Congregation dedicated to the education of the young he introduced into the formation process the practice of practical training, a period of three years during which the young Salesians “were sent to the houses to carry out different tasks, but mostly as assistants or teachers, for the main purpose that they might live together with the young, study their mentality, grow with them, and this under the guidance and supervision of the catechist and Rector.” He also offered precise indications and clear directives in the most varied fields of the Salesian mission, with a spirit of evangelical vigilance.
            This exercise of prudence was characterised by a docility to the Spirit and a marked capacity for discernment regarding the persons called to hold positions of responsibility, especially in the field of formation and governance of the houses and provinces, regarding the works and the different situations; as when, for example, he chose Fr Paul Albera as Visitor of the houses in America or Fr Philip Rinaldi as Prefect General. “He inculcated in all the confreres, especially the rectors and provincials, the exact observance of the Rules, the exemplary fulfilment of practices of piety and always the exercise of charity; and he himself preceded them all by example, saying: ‘A means of gaining the confidence of those under us is to never neglect one’s duties.’”
            The practice of prudence, especially in the exercise of government, produced as its fruit the filial confidence the confreres had in him, considering him as an expert counsellor and spiritual director, not only for matters of the soul, but also for material things: “The prudence of the servant of God shone in an extraordinary way in jealously preserving the confidential secret which he buried in his soul. He observed with the greatest caution the secrecy of personal correspondence: this was a general confession, and therefore the confreres approached him with great confidence because he answered everyone in the most delicate way.”

1.4. “Priest of the Pope”.
            This expression of Pope John XXIII in front of Don Bosco’s casket in 1959, expresses very well how Fr Rua, following Don Bosco in his daily journey, saw and found in the pope the light and the guide for his action. “Providence reserved even harder and I would say heroic trials of this fidelity and docility for Fr Rua than for Don Bosco. During his time as Rector Major, various decrees came from the Holy See that seemed to break traditions considered important and characteristic of our spirit in the Congregation. Fr Rua, while deeply feeling the blow of the sudden measures and being afflicted by them, immediately made himself a champion of obedience to the Holy See’s dispositions, inviting the Salesians, as true sons of the Church and of Don Bosco, to accept them serenely and with confidence.”
            This is one of the maturing elements of the Salesian charism in obedience to the Church and in fidelity to the founder. Certainly, it was a very demanding ordeal, but one that forged both the holiness of Fr Rua and the sentire cum ecclesia and that fidelity to the Pope of the entire Congregation and Salesian Family which were characteristic and indispensable features in Don Bosco. Obedience made of faith, of love, translated into humble but cordial service, in a spirit of filial docility and fidelity to the teachings and directives of the Holy Father.
            It is interesting to note how even in the process of beatification Fr Rua went halfway with Don Bosco, but not according to a repetitive stereotype, but with originality, highlighting precisely those aspects that in Don Bosco’s process had aroused the most controversial animadversiones: “Some surprise and perplexity may arise from the most obvious conclusion reached by comparing the two Positiones, that is the fact that the same virtues most frequently invoked to delineate Fr Rua’s holiness are those constantly set out to challenge Don Bosco’s holiness. It is true in fact that it is precisely prudence, temperance and poverty that are in the forefront of the animadversiones collected in the Founder’s Positio.”

(continued)

On 4 June 2024, the new rooms of the Salesian General Postulation located at the Zeffirino Namuncurà community in Via della Bufalotta in Rome were opened and blessed by the then Rector Major, Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime.In the plan to restructure the headquarters, the Rector Major with his Council decided to locate the rooms relating to the Salesian General Postulation in this new Salesian presence in Rome.

            From Don Bosco to the present day we recognise a tradition of holiness that deserves attention, because it is the embodiment of the charism that originated with him and that has been expressed in a plurality of states of life and forms. We are talking about men and women, young people and adults, consecrated and lay people, bishops and missionaries who in different historical, cultural and social contexts in time and space have made the Salesian charism shine with special light, representing a heritage that plays an effective role in the life and community of believers and for people of good will. The Postulation accompanies 64 Causes of Beatification and Canonisation concerning 179 Saints, Blesseds, Venerables, Servants of God. It is worth noting that about half of the Salesian Family groups (15 out of 32) have at least one Cause of Beatification and Canonisation underway.

            The plans for the work were drawn up and supervised by architect Toti Cameroni. Having identified the space for the location of the Postulation rooms, which originally comprised a long and wide corridor and a large hall, it then went on to the study of their distribution based on the requirements. The final solution was thus designed and realised:

The library with full-height bookcases divided into 40×40 cm squares that completely cover the walls. The purpose is to collect and store the various publications on saintly figures, in the knowledge that the lives and writings of the saints have, since ancient times, constituted frequent reading among the faithful, arousing conversion and a desire for a better life: they reflect the splendour of Christ’s goodness, truth and charity. In addition, this space is also well suited for personal research, hosting groups and meetings.

            From here we move on to the reception area, which is intended to be a space for spirituality and meditation, as in the visits to the monasteries of Mount Athos, where the guest was first introduced to the chapel of the relics of the saints: that is where the heart of the monastery was located and from there came the incitement to holiness for the monks. In this space there is a series of small showcases illuminating reliquaries or valuables related to Salesian holiness. The right-hand wall is lined with wooden panelling with replaceable panels depicting some of the Salesian Family’s saints, blessed, venerable and servants of God.
            A door leads into the largest room of the postulation: the archives. A 640 linear metre compactor allows for the archiving of a large number of documents relating to the various processes of Beatification and Canonisation. A long chest of drawers is located under the windows: there are liturgical images and vestments.
            A small corridor from the reception area, where canvases and paintings can be admired on the walls, leads first into two brightly lit offices with furnishings and then into the relics case. Also in this space, furniture fills the walls, cabinets and drawers accommodate the relics and liturgical vestments.

A storage room and a small room used as a rest area complete the postulation rooms.
            The opening and blessing of these rooms reminds us that we are custodians of a precious heritage that deserves to be known and valued. In addition to the liturgical-celebratory aspect, the spiritual, pastoral, ecclesial, educational, cultural, historical, social, missionary… potential of the Causes must be fully valorised. Holiness recognised, or in the process of being recognised, on the one hand is already a realisation of evangelical radicalism and fidelity to Don Bosco’s apostolic project, to be looked to as a spiritual and pastoral resource; on the other hand it is a provocation to live one’s vocation faithfully in order to be available to bear witness to love to the extreme. Our Saints, Blesseds, Venerables and Servants of God are the authentic incarnation of the Salesian charism and the Constitutions or Regulations of our Institutes and Groups in the most diverse times and situations, overcoming that worldliness and spiritual superficiality which undermine our credibility and fruitfulness at the root.
            Experience confirms more and more that the promotion and care of the Causes of Beatification and Canonisation of our Family, the celebration together of events related to holiness, are dynamics of grace that give rise to gospel joy and a sense of charismatic belonging, renewing intentions and commitments of fidelity to the call received and generating apostolic and vocational fruitfulness. The saints are true mystics of the primacy of God in the generous gift of self, prophets of evangelical fraternity, servants of their brothers and sisters with creativity.

            In order to promote the Causes of Beatification and Canonisation of the Salesian Family and to get to know at first hand the heritage of holiness that flourished from Don Bosco, the Postulation is available to welcome people and groups who wish to get to know and visit these environments, also offering the possibility of mini-retirements with itineraries on specific themes and the presentation of documents, relics, significant objects. For information write to postulatore@sdb.org.

Photo gallery – The new rooms of the Salesian General Postulation

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            Monte Sole is a hill in the Apennines near Bologna that until the Second World War had several small villagesalong its ridges: between 29 September and 5 October 1944, its inhabitants, mostly children, women and the elderly, were the victims of a terrible massacre by SS troops (Schutzstaffel, ‘protection squads’; a paramilitary organisation of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party created in Nazi Germany). 780 people died, many of them refugees in churches. Five priests lost their lives, including Father Giovanni Fornasini, proclaimed blessed and martyred in 2021 by Pope Francis.
            This is one of the most heinous massacres carried out by the Nazi SS in Europe during the Second World War, taking place around Monte Sole in the Marzabotto, Grizzana Morandi and Monzuno (Bologna) areas and commonly known as the ‘Marzabotto massacre’. Among the victims were a number of priests and religious, including Salesian Father Elia Comini, who throughout his life and until the end strove to be a good shepherd and to spend himself unreservedly, generously, going our of himself with no return. This is the true essence of his pastoral charity, which presents him as a model of a shepherd who watches over the flock, ready to give his life for it, in defence of the weak and the innocent.

‘Receive me as an expiatory victim’
            Elia Comini was born in Calvenzano di Vergato (Bologna) on 7 May 1910. His parents Claudio, a carpenter, and Emma Limoni, a seamstress, prepared him for life and educated him in the faith. He was baptised in Calvenzano. He made his First Communion and received Confirmation in Salvaro di Grizzana. From an early age he showed great interest in catechism, church services and singing in serene and cheerful friendship with his companions. The archpriest of Salvaro, Monsignor Fidenzio Mellini, as a young soldier in Turin, had attended the Valdocco oratory and had met Don Bosco who had prophesied the priesthood for him. Monsignor Mellini highly regarded Elias for his faith, kindness and unique intellectual abilities and urged him to become one of Don Bosco’s sons. For this reason he directed him to the small Salesian seminary in Finale Emilia (Modena) where Elia attended middle school and upper secondary. In 1925 he entered the Salesian novitiate at Castel De’ Britti (Bologna) and made his religious profession there on 3 October 1926. From 1926-1928 he attended the Salesian high school in Valsalice (Turin), where Don Bosco’s grave was then kept, as a student cleric of philosophy. It was in this place that Elias began a demanding spiritual journey, witnessed by a diary he kept until just over two months before his tragic death. These are pages revealing an inner life as profound as it was not perceived on the outside. On the eve of the renewal of his vows, he would write: ‘I am more than ever happy on this day, on the eve of the holocaust that I hope will be pleasing to You. Receive me as an expiatory victim, even though I do not deserve it. If you believe, give me some reward: forgive me my sins of the past life; help me to become a saint.’
            He completed his practical training as assistant educator in Finale Emilia, Sondrio and Chiari. He graduated in Literature at the State University of Milan. On 16 March 1935 he was ordained a priest in Brescia. He wrote: ‘I asked Jesus: death, rather than failing my priestly vocation; and heroic love for souls’. From 1936 to 1941 he taught Literature in the ‘San Bernardino’ aspirant school in Chiari (Brescia), giving excellent proof of his teaching talent and his attention to young people. In the years 1941-1944 religious obedience transferred him to the Salesian institute in Treviglio (Bergamo). He particularly embodied Don Bosco’s pastoral charity and the traits of Salesian loving-kindness, which he transmitted to the young through his affable character, goodness and smile.

Triduum of passion
            The habitual gentleness of his demeanour and heroic dedication to the priestly ministry shone out clearly during the short annual summer stays with his mother, who was left alone in Salvaro, and at his adopted parish, where the Lord would later ask Father Elias for the total gift of his life. Some time earlier he had written in his diary: ‘The thought that I must die always persists in me. Who knows! Let us act as the faithful servant always prepared for the call, to give an account of stewardship’. We are in the period from June to September 1944, when during the terrible situation created in the area between Monte Salvaro and Monte Sole, with the advance of the Allied front line, the Stella Rossa partisan brigade settled on the heights, and the Nazis at risk of being bottling up brought the population to the brink of total destruction.
            On 23 July, the Nazis, following the killing of one of their soldiers, began a series of reprisals: ten men were killed, houses set on fire. Father Comini did his utmost to welcome the relatives of those killed and to hide those still wanted. He also helped the elderly parish priest of San Michele di Salvaro, Monsignor Fidenzio Mellini: he taught catechism, led retreats, celebrated, preached, exhorted, played and sing and made people sing to calm down a situation that was heading for the worst. Then, together with Father Martino Capelli, a Dehonian, Father Elias continually rushed to help, console, administer the sacraments and bury the dead. In some cases he even managed to save groups of people by leading them to the rectory. His heroism was manifested with increasing clarity at the end of September 1944, when the Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces) largely gave way to the terrible SS.
            The triduum of passion for Father Elia Comini and Father Martino Capelli began on Friday 29 September. The Nazis caused panic in the Monte Salvaro area and the population poured into the parish in search of protection. Father Comini, risking his life, hid about seventy men in a room adjoining the sacristy, covering the door with an old wardrobe. The ruse succeeded. In fact, the Nazis, searching the various rooms three times, did not notice. In the meantime, news arrived that the terrible SS had massacred several dozen people in ‘Creda’, among whom were wounded and dying people in need of comfort. Father Elias celebrated his last Mass early in the morning and then together with Father Martino, taking the holy oils and the Eucharist, they hurried off in the hope of still being able to help some of the wounded. He did this freely. In fact, everyone dissuaded him: from the parish priest to the women there. ‘Don’t go, father. It is dangerous!’ They tried to hold Father Elias and Father Martino back by force, but they made this decision in full awareness of the danger of death. Father Elias said: ‘Pray, pray for me, because I have a mission to fulfil’; ‘Pray for me, don’t leave me alone!’.
            The two priests were captured Near Creda di Salvaro; they were forced to carry ammunition and, in the evening, were locked up in the stable at Pioppe di Salvaro. On Saturday 30 September, Father Elia and Father Martino spent all their energy comforting the many men locked up with them. The Prefect Commissioner of Vergato Emilio Veggetti, who did not know Father Martino, but knew Father Elia very well, tried in vain to obtain the release of the prisoners. The two priests continued to pray and console. In the evening, they heard each other’s confession.
            The following day, Sunday 1 October 1944, at dusk, the machine-gun inexorably mowed down the 46 victims of what was to go down in history as the ‘Massacre of Pioppe di Salvaro’: they were the men considered unfit for work; among them, the two priests, young and forced two days earlier to do heavy work. Witnesses who were at a short distance, as the crow flies, from the site of the massacre, could hear the voice of Father Comini leading the Litanies and then heard the sound of gunfire. Fathe Comini, before falling to his death, gave absolution to all and shouted: ‘Mercy, mercy!’, while Father Capelli got up from the bottom of the barrel and made wide signs of the cross, until he fell back with his arms outstretched on the cross. Nobody could be recovered. After twenty days, the grates were opened and the waters of the Reno swept away the mortal remains, completely losing track of them. In the Botte people died amid blessings and invocations, amid prayers, acts of repentance and forgiveness. Here, as in other places, people died as Christians, with faith, with their hearts turned to God in the hope of eternal life.

History of the Montesole massacre
            Between 29 September and 5 October 1944, 770 people were killed, but overall the victims of the Nazis and Fascists, from the spring of 1944 to the liberation, numbered 955, distributed acrpss 115 different locations within a vast territory that included the municipalities of Marzabotto, Grizzana and Monzuno (and some portions of neighbouring territories). Of these, 216 were children, 316  women, 142 the elderly, 138 the victims recognised partisans, and five were priests whose guilt in the eyes of the Nazis consisted in having been close, with prayer and material aid, to the entire population of Monte Sole during the tragic months of war and military occupation. Together with Father Elia Comini, a Salesian, and Father Martino Capelli, a Dehonian, three priests from the Archdiocese of Bologna were also killed in those tragic days: Father Ubaldo Marchioni, Father Ferdinando Casagrande and Father Giovanni Fornasini. The Cause of Beatification and Canonisation of all five is underway. Father Giovanni, the ‘Angel of Marzabotto’, fell on 13 October 1944. He was twenty-nine years old and his body remained unburied until 1945, when it was found heavily tortured. He was beatified on 26 September 2021. Father Ubaldo died on 29 September, killed by a machine gun on sanctuary of his church in Casaglia; he was 26 years old and had been ordained a priest two years earlier. Nazi soldiers found him and the community intent on praying the rosary. He was killed there, at the foot of the altar. The others – more than 70 – in the nearby cemetery. Father Ferdinando was shot in the back of the head on 9 October, with his sister Giulia; he was 26 years old.

The Holy Spirit unceasingly continues the hidden work in souls, leading them to holiness. Not a few members of the Salesian Family have led lives worthy of the title of Christian: consecrated men and women, lay people, young people, have lived their lives in faith, bringing God’s grace to their neighbours. It is up to the General Postulation of the Salesians of Don Bosco to study their lives and writings and propose to the Church that it recognise their holiness.
A few days ago, the new headquarters for the Postulation was opened. We hope that the new facilities will be an opportunity for a renewed commitment to the causes of canonisation, not only on the part of those who work directly on the causes, but also for all those who can make a contribution. Let us be guided in this by the Postulator General for the Causes of Saints, Fr Pierluigi Cameroni.

It is necessary to express deep gratitude and praise to God for the holiness already recognized in the Salesian Family of Don Bosco and for that in the process of being recognized. The outcome of a Cause of Beatification and Canonization is an event of extraordinary importance and ecclesial value. In fact, it is a matter of discerning the reputation of holiness of a baptized person, who has lived the Gospel Beatitudes to a heroic degree or who has given his life for Christ.
From Don Bosco to the present day, there is evidence of a tradition of holiness to which attention should be given, because it is the incarnation of the charism that originated from him and was expressed in a plurality of states of life and forms. These are men and women, young people and adults, consecrated persons and lay people, bishops and missionaries who, in historical, cultural and social contexts of different times and space, have made the Salesian charism shine with a singular light, representing a patrimony that plays an effective role in the life and community of believers and for people of good will.

The commitment to spread the knowledge, imitation and intercession of the members of our family who are candidates for holiness

Tips for promoting a Cause.

– Encourage prayer through the intercession of the Blessed, Venerable Servant of God, through images (also relics ex-indumentis), brochures, books… to be spread in families, parishes, religious houses, spirituality centers, hospitals to ask for the grace of miracles and favors through the intercession of the Blessed, Venerable Servant of God.

– The diffusion of the novena Blessed, Venerable Servant of God, invoking his intercession in various cases of material and spiritual need, is particularly effective.
Two formative elements are emphasized: the value of insistent and trusting prayer and that of community prayer. Let us recall the biblical episode of Naam the Syrian (2 Kings 5:1-14), where we see several elements: the signalling of the man of God by a maiden, the injunction to bathe seven times in the Jordan, the indignant and resentful refusal, the wisdom and insistence of Naam’s servants,

Naam’s obedience, the obtaining not only of physical healing but of salvation. Let us also recall the description of the first community of Jerusalem, when it is stated: “All these persevered and with one accord in prayer, together with some of the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brethren” (Acts 1:14).

– It is advisable, every month, on the day of the date of death of the Blessed (Venerable) Servant of God, to take care of a moment of prayer and commemoration.

– Publish quarterly or quarterly a Sheet that informs about the journey of the Cause, particular anniversaries and events, testimonies, thank you… to emphasize that the Cause is alive and accompanied.

– Organize a Commemorative Day once a year, highlighting particular aspects or anniversaries of the figure of the Blessed, (Venerable) Servant of God, involving groups that are particularly “interested” in his or her witness (e.g. priests, religious, young people, families, doctors, missionaries…).

– Collect and document the graces and favors that are attributed to the Blessed, (Venerable) Servant of God. It is useful to have a notebook in which to write down and report the graces asked for and those received, as a testimony to the reputation of both holiness and signs. In particular, if it is a matter of healings and/or alleged miracles, it is important to urgently collect all medical documentation that proves the case and evidence attesting to intercession.

– To set up a committee that undertakes to promote this Cause also in view of the Beatification and Canonization. The members of this Committee should be persons particularly sensitive to the promotion of the Cause: representatives of the diocese and parish of origin, leaders of groups and associations, doctors (for the study of alleged miracles), historians, theologians and experts in spirituality…

– Promote knowledge through the writing of biography, critical editions of writings and other multimedia productions.

– Periodically present the figure of the Blessed, (Venerable) Servant of God in the Parish Bulletin and in the diocesan newspaper, in the Salesian Bulletin.

– Have a website or a link dedicated to the Blessed, (Venerable) Servant of God with his/her life, data and news relating to the Cause of Beatification and Canonization, request for prayers, notification of graces…

– Review and tidy up the environments where he/she has lived. Organize an exhibition space. Develop a spiritual itinerary in his footsteps, enhancing places (birthplace, church, living environments…) and signs.

– To organize an archive with all the catalogued and computerized documentation relating to the Blessed, (Venerable) Servant of God.

– To create an economic fund to support both the expenses of the Postulation of the Cause and the work of promotion and animation of the Cause itself.

– To promote works of charity and education in the name of the Blessed, (Venerable) Servant of God, through projects, twinnings…

Pay special attention to alleged miracles!

– To take care of our “theological” gaze to grasp the miracles that take place every day in our lives and around us.
– To pray and to have others pray for the various cases that arise and to ask that through the intercession of a Servant of God or Venerable or Blessed, the Lord intervene with his grace and work not only a miracle objectively concerning bodily health, but also a true and sincere conversion.
– To make people better understand what a “demonstrable” miracle is and what it is used for in a Cause of canonization, showing not only the scientific, medical but also the theological aspect.
– Appoint a person in charge to communicate and report graces and alleged miracles. Following a Cause to certify a miracle is a very great commitment for a promoter who must demonstrate true love for the Servant of God.
– To raise awareness that we must have more faith in the intercession of our saints.
– Communicate when we ask for a grace to unite in prayer. Don’t get tired of praying.
– Follow better and personally the people to whom you give the material (novenas, holy cards, etc.) and also carefully choose the places where to do it.
– It is important to sensitize the faithful to continuous prayer sustained by great faith and always ready to accept God’s will. We can learn by looking at the lives and sufferings of our Saints.
– In addition to prayers, it is important to be close to families who have great problems and to give them some relics.
– In the case of an alleged miracle, it is necessary to proceed rigorously by using a scientific methodology in collecting evidence, testimonies, medical opinions, etc., and possibly by ordering all the information in chronological sequence.

A miracle is composed of two essential elements: the scientific and the theological. The second, however, presupposes the first.

You need to prepare

1. A brief and accurate report on the particular circumstances of the case; This consists in a chronological case of all the elements of the prodigious fact, both those concerning the scientific and the theological elements. The chronological case involves: generality of the healed; symptoms of the disease, chronology of medical-scientific events; indication of the decisive hours of recovery, clarification of the diagnosis and prognosis of the case, highlighting all the research performed. Outline the therapy followed, explain the mode of healing, i.e. when the last observation was made before healing, the completeness of the healing, presented in great detail, and the permanence of the healing.

2. A list of texts that can contribute to the search for the truth of the case (healed, relatives, doctors, nurses, people who have prayed…).

3. All documents related to the case. Medical, clinical, and instrumental documents (e.g., medical records, medical reports, laboratory tests, and instrumental investigations) are required for alleged miraculous healings.

Initial discernment before initiating a cause

First of all, it is necessary, on the part of the Provincial and his Council or of the Superior or Head of a group, to investigate and document with the greatest diligence about the fama sanctitatis et signorum of the candidate and the relevance of the Cause, in order to verify the truth of the facts and the consequent formation of a reasoned moral certainty. Moreover, it is essential that the Cause in question affects a significant and significant portion of the People of God and is not the intention of only some group, if not even of some person. All this involves a more motivated and documented initial discernment, to avoid dispersion of energies, forces, times and resources.
It is then essential to identify the right person (Vice Postulator) who takes the Cause to heart and has the time and opportunity to follow it in all its stages.
It should also be remembered that starting and continuing a Cause requires a considerable investment of resources in terms of people and financial contributions.

Conclusion

Sanctity recognized, or in the process of being recognized, on the one hand is already the realization of evangelical radicalism and fidelity to Don Bosco’s apostolic project, to which we look as a spiritual and pastoral resource; on the other hand, it is a provocation to live one’s vocation faithfully in order to be available to bear witness to love to the extreme. Our Saints, Blesseds, Venerables and Servants of God are the authentic incarnation of the Salesian charism and of the Constitutions or Regulations of our Institutes and Groups in the most diverse times and situations, overcoming that worldliness and spiritual superficiality that undermine our credibility and fruitfulness at the root. The saints are true mystics of the primacy of God in the generous gift of self, prophets of evangelical fraternity, servants of their brothers and sisters with creativity.

The path of holiness is a journey to be made together, in the company of the saints. Holiness is experienced together and attained together. The saints are always in company: where there is one, we always find many others. The sanctity of daily life makes communion flourish and is a “relational” generator. Holiness is nourished by relationships, by confidence, by communion. Truly, as the Church’s liturgy makes us pray in the preface of the saints: “In their lives you offer us an example, in intercession a help, in the communion of grace a bond of fraternal love. Comforted by their testimony, let us face the good fight of faith, to share the same crown of glory beyond death.”

‘Founded’ in a glance that marked a lifetime
            Louis Variara was born on 15 January 1875 in Viarigi (Asti). Don Bosco had come to this village in 1856 to preach a mission. And it was to Don Bosco that the father, on 1 October 1887, entrusted his son to take him to Valdocco. Don Bosco would die four months later, but the knowledge that Louis had of him was enough to mark him for life. He himself remembered the event as follows: “It was in the winter season and one afternoon we were playing in the large courtyard of the oratory when suddenly there was a shout from one side to the other: ‘Don Bosco, Don Bosco!’ Instinctively we all rushed towards the spot where our good Father appeared, whom they were taking out for a ride in his carriage. We followed him to the place where he was to get into the vehicle; immediately Don Bosco was surrounded by a crowd of his beloved boys. I was anxiously searching for a way to put myself in a place where I could see him at my leisure, for I longed to meet him. I got as close as I could, and as they helped him into the carriage, he gave me a gently look, and his eyes rested intently on me. I don’t know what I felt at that moment… it was something I cannot express! That day was one of the happiest for me; I was sure that I had met a saint, and that that saint had read in my soul something that only God and he could know.”
            He asked to become a Salesian: he entered the novitiate on 17 August 1891 and completed it on 2 October 1892 with perpetual vows in the hands of Blessed Michael Rua, who whispered in his ear: “Variara, don’t vary!” He studied philosophy at Valsalice, where he met the Venerable Fr Andrea Beltrami. Here, in 1894, Fr Michael Unia, the famous missionary who had recently started working among the lepers in Agua de Dios, Colombia, passed by. “What an astonishment and joy” Frn Variara recounts” when, among the 188 companions who had the same aspiration, fixing his gaze on me, he said ‘This one is mine’”.
            He arrived at Agua de Dios on 6 August 1894. The place had a population of 2,000, 800 of whom were lepers. He immersed himself totally in his mission. Gifted with musical skills, he organised a band that immediately created a festive atmosphere in the “City of Sorrow”. He transformed the sadness of the place with Salesian cheerfulness, with music, theatre, sport and the lifestyle of the Salesian oratory.
            On 24 April 1898, he was ordained a priest and soon proved to be an excellent spiritual director. Among his penitents were members of the Association of the Daughters of Mary, a group of about 200 girls, many of whom were lepers. It was in the face of this realisation that the first idea of consecrated young women, albeit lepers, was born in him. The Congregation of the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary began on 7 May 1905. It was “founded” in full submission to religious obedience and, a unique case in the history of the Church. He founded the first religious community made up of people affected by leprosy or daughters of leprosy sufferers. He wrote: “Never have I felt as happy to be a Salesian as I do this year, and I bless the Lord for sending me to this leprosarium, where I have learnt not to let heaven be stolen from me.”
            Ten years had passed since he arrived at Agua de Dios: a happy decade full of achievements, including the completion of the”Don Miguel Unia” kindergarten. But now a period of suffering and misunderstandings was beginning for the generous missionary. This period would last 18 years, until his death at Cúcuta in Colombia on 1 February 1923 at 48 years of age and 24 of priesthood.
            Fr Variara knew how to combine in himself both fidelity to the work that the Lord asked of him, and submission to the orders that his legitimate superior imposed on him and that seemed to lead him away from the ways willed by God. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 14 April 2002.

Founded in spiritual friendship
            In Turin-Valsalice, Fr Variara got to know the Venerable Andrea Beltrami, a Salesian priest stricken with consumption, who had offered himself as a victim to God for the conversion of all sinners in the world. A spiritual friendship was born between Fr Variara and Fr Beltrami, and Fr Variara was to be inspired by him when he founded the Congregation of the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Colombia, to whom he proposed ‘victim consecration’.
            The Venerable Andrea Beltrami is the forerunner of the victim-oblative dimension of the Salesian charism, “The mission that God entrusts to me is to pray and to suffer” he said. “Neither to heal nor to die, but to live to suffer”, was his motto. Very exact in his observance of the Rule, he had a filial openness to his superiors and an ardent love for Don Bosco and the Congregation. His bed became an altar and pulpit, where he immolated himself together with Jesus and from which he taught how to love, how to offer and how to suffer. His little room became his whole world, from which he wrote and in which he celebrated his bloody Mass: “I offer myself as a victim with Him, for the sanctification of priests, for the people of the whole world”, he repeated; but his Salesianity also led him to have relationships with the outside world. He offered himself as a victim of love for the conversion of sinners and for the consolation of the suffering. Fr Beltrami fully grasped the sacrificial dimension of the Salesian charism, desired by the founder Don Bosco.
            Fr Variara’s daughters wrote of Fr Beltrami as follows: “We are poor young people struck down by the terrible disease of leprosy, violently torn and separated from our parents, deprived in a single moment of our liveliest hopes and our most ardent desires… We felt the caressing hand of God in the holy encouragements and pitiful industries of Fr Louis Variara in the face of our acute pains of body and soul. Persuaded that it is the will of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and finding it easy to accomplish, we began to offer ourselves as victims of expiation, following the example of Fr Andrea Beltrami, a Salesian.”

Founded in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary
            Founder … founded, of the Institute of the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. In his life he encountered great difficulties, such as in 1901 when the “Don Miguel Unia” house was being built, but he entrusted himself to the Virgin, writing: “Now more than ever I have confidence in the success of this work, Mary Help of Christians will help me”; “I only have money to pay for one week, so … it is up to Mary Help of Christians, because the work is in her hands.” In painful moments, Father Variara renewed his devotion to the Virgin, thus finding the serenity and trust in God to continue his mission.
            In the great obstacles he encountered in founding the Congregation of the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts, Father Variara acted in the same way as at other times. At the time he had to leave Agua de Dios. In the same way he acted when he was told he had contracted leprosy. “Some days” he confessed, “despair assails me, with thoughts that I hasten to banish by invoking the Virgin.” And to his spiritual daughters, far away and removed from his paternal guidance, he wrote: “… Jesus will be your strength, and Mary Help of Christians will spread her mantle over you.” “I have no illusions” he wrote on another occasion, “I leave everything in the hands of the Virgin.” “May Jesus and Mary be blessed a thousand times over, live always in our hearts.”

A man destined for elimination
            Titus Zeman was born in Vajnory, near Bratislava (in Slovakia), on 4 January 1915, the first of ten children in a simple family. At the age of 10, he was suddenly healed through Our Lady’s intercession and promised to “be her son forever” and become a Salesian priest. He began to realise this dream in 1927, after overcoming opposition from his family for two years. He had asked the family to sell a field to be able to pay for his studies, and had added, “If I had died, you would well have found the money for my funeral. Please use that money to pay for my studies.”
            The same determination constantly returns in Zeman: when the communist regime established itself in Czechoslovakia and persecuted the Church, Father Titus defended the crucifix symbol (1946), paying with his dismissal from the school where he taught. Having providentially escaped the dramatic “Night of the Barbarians” and the deportation of religious (13-14 April 1950), he decided to cross the Iron Curtain with the young Salesians to Turin, where he was welcomed by the Rector Major Fr Peter Ricaldone. After two successful crossings (summer and autumn 1950), the expedition failed in April 1951. Fr Zeman faced an initial week of torture and another ten months of preventive detention, with further heavy torture, until the trial on 20-22 February 1952. He would then undergo 12 years in detention (1952-1964) and almost five years on parole, always spied on and persecuted (1964-1969).
            In February 1952, the Prosecutor General demanded the death penalty for him for espionage, high treason and illegal border crossing, which was commuted to 25 years in hard prison without parole. However, Fr Zeman was branded a “man destined for elimination” and experienced life in forced labour camps. He was forced to grind radioactive uranium by hand and without protection; he spent long periods in solitary confinement, with a food ration six times less than that of the others. He becomes seriously ill with heart, lung and neurological diseases. On 10 March 1964, having served half his sentence, he was released from prison on parole for seven years. He was physically unrecognisable and experienced a period of intense suffering, also spiritual, due to the ban on publicly exercising his priestly ministry. He died, after receiving amnesty, on 8 January 1969.

Saviour of vocations to the point of martyrdom
            Fr Titus lived his vocation and the special mission to which he felt called to work for the salvation of vocations with a great spirit of faith, embracing the hour of “ordeal” and “sacrifice” and testifying to his ability, also due to the grace received from God, to face the offering of his life, the passion of imprisonment and torture and finally death with a Christian, consecrated and priestly conscience. This is attested by the rosary of 58 beads, one for each period of torture, which he made of bread and thread, and above all the reference to Ecce homo, as the One who kept him company in his sufferings, and without Whom he would not have been able to face them. He guarded and defended the faith of young people in times of persecution, to oppose the communist re-education and ideological redevelopment. His journey of faith was a continuous “shining forth” of virtues, the fruit of an intense interior life, which translates into a courageous mission, in a country where Communism intended to wipe out every trace of Christian life. Fr Titus’ entire life was summed up in encouraging others to that “fidelity in vocation” with which he decisively followed his own. His was a total love for the Church and his own religious vocation and apostolic mission. His bold undertakings flow from this unified and unifying love.

Witness of hope
            The heroic witness of Blessed Titus Zeman is one of the most beautiful pages of faith that the Christian communities of Eastern Europe and the Salesian Congregation wrote during the harsh years of religious persecution by communist regimes in the last century. Particularly resplendent was his commitment to young consecrated and priestly vocations, decisive for the future of the faith in those territories.
            With his life, Fr Titus showed himself to be a man of unity, who broke down barriers, mediated in conflicts, always looked to the integral good of the person; moreover, he always considered an alternative, a better solution, a non-surrender to unfavourable circumstances to be possible. In the same years in which some apostatised or betrayed, and others became discouraged, he strengthened the hope of young men called to the priesthood. His obedience was creative, not formal. He acted not only for the good of his neighbour, but in the best possible way. Thus, he did not limit himself to organising the clerics’ escapes abroad, but accompanied them by paying in person, allowing them to reach Turin, in the conviction that ‘at Don Bosco’s house’ they would have an experience destined to mark their entire lives. At the root of this was the awareness that to save a vocation is to save many lives: first of all that of the one called, then those that an obeyed vocation reaches, in this case through religious and priestly life.

            It is significant that the martyrdom of Fr Titus Zeman was recognised in the wake of the bicentenary of the birth of St John Bosco. His testimony is the incarnation of Jesus’ vocational call and pastoral predilection for children and young people, especially for his young Salesian confreres, a predilection that manifested itself, as in Don Bosco, in a true ‘passion’, seeking their good, putting all his energies, all his strength, all his life into this in a spirit of sacrifice and offering, “Even were I to lose my life, I would not consider it wasted, knowing that at least one of those I had helped has become a priest in my place.”

“Zatti – hospital”
Zatti and the hospital were an inseparable pair. Fr Entraigas remembers that when there was a telephone call the Salesian Brother answered almost instantly: “Zatti-Hospital”. Without realising it he was expressing the inseparable reality between himself and the hospital. Having become responsible for the hospital in 1913 after the death of Fr Garrone and after Giacinto Massini left the Congregation, little by little he took over every task, but he was first of all and unmistakably the “nurse” of the San Jose hospital. He did not prepare himself casually but tried to perfect what he had learned empirically through personal study. He continued to study throughout his life and gained a high level of experience thanks to 48 years of practice at San Jose. Doctor Sussini, who was among those who practised there the longest, after having stated that Zatti cured the sick with “santa vocación” adds: “From the time that I met him, as far as I know, being the mature and already prepared man that he was, Bro. Zatti did not neglect his general level of knowledge, nor his knowledge of nursing and pharmacy.”
Fr De Roia spoke of Zatti’s professional development: “Speaking of cultural and professional training, I remember seeing medical books and publications and asking him once when he read them. He replied that he did so at night or while patients were taking a nap, once he had finished his duties in the hospital. He also told me that Dr Sussini sometimes lent him some books and I saw that he often consulted the ‘Vademecum e ricettari’”
Doctor Pietro Echay said that for Zatti “the Hospital was a sanctuary.” Fr Feliciano López describes Zatti’s position at the hospital, after long experience with him: “Zatti was a man of leadership, he knew how to clearly express what he wanted, but he accompanied this with gentleness, respect and joy. He never lost his temper, indeed, he would downplay things in a good-natured sort of way, but his example of industriousness was overwhelming and more than being a director without title, he had become a kind of universal worker. Apart from this, he quickly advanced in professional competence, in order to achieve the respect of doctors and even more, his workers. So I never heard it said that peace did not reign in that small world of 60 or 70 patients, in the early days with several Sisters, other women who provided their service and some nurses. And even if there might sometimes be disagreements, as is natural, these did not degenerate thanks to Zatti’s prudence. He was able to remedy these situations.”
The San José Hospital was a special sanctuary for human suffering where Artemides embraced and cared for the suffering flesh of Christ in every suffering brother and sister, and gave meaning and hope to human suffering. Zatti – and with him many men and women of good will – embodied the parable of the Good Samaritan: he was close to people, he stretched out his hand to them, uplifted them, and cared for them. For him, every sick person was like a child to love. Men and women, big and small, rich and poor, intelligent and ignorant, all were treated in a respectful and lovable way, without being upset by or rejecting the insolent and unfriendly ones. He used to say: ‘Sometimes you can have someone with a nice approach, sometimes an unpleasant one, but before God we are all the same.’
Though the hospital was poor, and though many of those who were hospitalised were poor, given the time, places and situations of all hospitals, including national hospitals at the time, Zatti followed the correct health and hygiene standards. Things then were done a bit more flexibly, but this never meant that Bro. Zatti, as a nurse, lacked either justice or charity towards his patients. He was well educated for his task and had good experience. He knew what he had to do and the limits of his skills. There is no record of any mistake, any neglect or any accusation against him. Dr Sussini said: “In his interventions with the sick, he always respected the legal norms, without exceeding his powers […]. I would like to point out that in all his interventions he consulted some of the doctors who were always at his side to support him. As far as I know, he never attempted any serious operations […]. It is certain that he used the established hygienic prescriptions, although sometimes, given his great faith, he considered them excessive. The socio-economic scenario in which Bro. Zatti mainly carried out his activity was one where the economy was poor, education was poor and the people generally had little education. In his activity within the hospital he put into practice the consolidated knowledge of hygiene and technique that he already had and others that he learned by asking professionals. Outside the hospital, his activity was more difficult because changing the situation around him was very difficult and beyond anything he could do.”
Luigi Palma had more to say: “Bro. Zatti’s discretion and prudence was commonly spoken of in Viedma, and any abuse in this matter would have been quickly known in a small population such as Viedma, yet nothing of the kind was ever heard. Bro. Zatti never exceeded his competence. I don’t think he performed any difficult operations. If there had been any abuse, the doctors would have reported it, but they did nothing but praise Zatti’s work […]. Bro. Zatti used the prescribed hygienic precautions. I know this because he treated me on several occasions: injections or small treatments done with all due diligence.”
For a man who spent his whole life with enormous sacrifice for the sick, who was sought by them as a blessing, who won the respect of all the doctors who collaborated with him and against whom a voice of accusation could never be raised, it would be unfair to deny some of the freedom that his experience and prudence could allow him in some particular circumstance: the sublime exercise of charity, even in this case, was worth more than the observance of any formal prescription.

With the heart of Don Bosco
In Zatti, what Don Bosco recommended to the first Salesian missionaries leaving for Argentina had been fulfilled: “Take special care of the sick, of the young, of the old and of the poor, and you will win the blessing of God and the good will of men.” As a Good Samaritan, Zatti took the poor, the sick, and people discarded by society to the inn that was his heart, and to the San José Hospital in Viedma In each of them he saw Christ, looked after Christ, fed Christ, clothed Christ, hosted Christ, honoured Christ. As one doctor at the hospital testified: “The only miracle I have seen in my life is Bro. Zatti, for the extraordinary nature of his character, the ability to serve his neighbour and his extraordinary patience with the sick.”
Zatti was able to recognise a gift in every brother, in every sister, in every person, especially the poor and needy, that he encountered: he was able to see the luminous face of Jesus in each of them. How many times he would exclaim when welcoming a poor or sick person: “Jesus is coming! Christ is coming!” This keeping his gaze fixed on Jesus, especially at a time of trial and in the dark night of the soul, would be the strength that would not allow him to fall prey to his own thoughts and fears.
In the exercise of this charity, Zatti showed God’s embrace for every human being, especially the lowliest, and by involving heart, soul and all his being, he lived with the poor and for the poor. It was not simply the rendering of services, but a tangible manifestation of God’s love, recognising and serving the face of the suffering Christ in the poor and sick with motherly delicacy and tenderness. Living with the poor, he practised charity in a spirit of poverty. He was not an official or bureaucrat, not a service provider, but a true charity worker: and in seeing, recognising and serving Christ in the poor and the excluded, he also educated others. When he asked for something, he asked for Jesus: “Give me a suit for an elderly Jesus”; “Give me some clothes for a 12-year-old Jesus!”
It is impossible to forget his adventures on his bicycle, his endless trips with his classic white dust coat with knotted ends tied at the waist, greeted with tender affection by those he met on his way. Given the slow progress on his bicycle he had time for everything: an affectionate greeting, a kind word, some measured advice, some therapeutic pointers, spontaneous and disinterested help. His large pockets were always full of medicines, all of which he distributed to the needy. He personally reached out to those who called on him, generously giving them not only his well-established medical knowledge, but also the trust, optimism, and faith that radiated from his constant, broad, gentle smile and the kindness of his gaze. Any seriously ill person who received a visit from Bro. Zatti would feel the unmeasurable relief that came from this man at their side. Anyone who died with Zatti there did so without anguish. The charity so generously dispensed around Viedma’s muddy streets meant that Artemides Zatti was remembered by the city with a street, a hospital and a monument named after him.
He carried out a small apostolate that showed the extent of his charity, but that involved much time, work, difficulty and many little inconveniences. Since everyone knew his goodness and goodwill in serving others, everyone turned to him for all kinds of things. The Salesian rectors of houses in the province wrote for medical advice, sent confreres to be looked after, brought people to his hospital when they were unable to bring themselves. The Daughters of Mary Help of Christians sought favours no less than the Salesians. Italian migrants asked for help, had him write to Italy, asked for records. Those who had been well cared for in the hospital sent relatives and friends for him to look after as if it were an expression of gratitude, but it was because of the respect they had for his care. The civil authorities often had people who needed help and resorted to Zatti. Prisoners and other people, seeing how well he got on with the authorities, got him to ask for clemency for them or work on solving their issues.
One event that expresses Zatti’s authoritative power to impact the lives of people by his gospel witness and persuasive word is the conversion of Lautaro Montalva. Known as “the Chilean” because of his country of origin, he was a revolutionary, exploited by the usual political agitators. He would disseminate magazines against religion. Finally, when everyone abandoned him, he fell into poverty and was on his deathbed, but with a large family. Only Zatti had the courage to enter his hovel, manage his first reactions of rejection then win him over him with his charity. The revolutionary calmed down and asked to be baptised: his children were also baptised. Zatti admitted him to the hospital. Shortly before his death he asked the parish priest: “Give me the sacraments that a Christian should receive!” Montalva’s conversion was a conquest of Zatti’s charity and Christian courage.
Zatti made the mission to the sick his own educational space where he embodied Don Bosco’s Preventive System daily – reason, religion, loving kindness – in closeness and assistance to the needy, helping them to understand and accept the painful situations of life. He was a living witness to the presence of the Lord.

Zatti the nurse
Artemides Zatti’s professional profile, which began with a promise, was rooted in trust in Providence and developed once he recovered from his illness. The phrase “I believed, I promised, I recovered”, the motto used at his canonisation, shows the total dedication that Zatti had for his sick brothers and sisters, the poorest and neediest.
He continued this commitment daily until his death in the hospital in San José, founded by the first Salesians to arrive in Patagonia, and he reiterated it during every home visit, urgent or otherwise, that he made to the sick who needed him.
On his bicycle, in his administrator’s office, in the operating room, in the courtyard during recess with his poor “relatives”, in the hospital departments he visited every day, he was always a nurse; a holy nurse dedicated to healing and alleviating, bringing the best medicine: the cheerful and optimistic presence of empathy.

A person and a team doing good
It was faith that drove Artemides Zatti to tireless but reasonable activity. His religious consecration had introduced him directly and completely into the care of the poor, the sick and those who need the health and merciful consolation of God.
Bro. Zatti worked in the world of healthcare alongside doctors, nurses, healthcare personnel, Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and many people who collaborated with him to support the San José hospital, the first in Argentine Patagonia, in Viedma during the first half of the 20th century.
The tuberculosis he contracted at the age of twenty was not an obstacle to persevering in his career choice. He found in the figure of the Salesian brother the style of commitment to working directly with the poor. His religious consecration, lived in his profession as a nurse, was the combination of his life dedicated to God and his brothers and sisters. Naturally this manifested itself in a special, unique and unrepeatable personality. Artemides Zatti was a good person who worked directly with the poor, doing good.

Direct contact with the poor was aimed at health, that is, soothing pain, enduring suffering, accompanying the final moments of their lives, offering a smile in the face of the irreversible, lending a hand with hope. For this reason, Zatti became a “medicine-presence”: he cared directly with his pleasant presence.
His main biographer, Salesian Raul Entraigas, made an original discovery. He identified the summary of Artemide Zatti’s life in the phrase of a fellow villager: he seems to be “the kinsman of all the poor”. Zatti saw Jesus himself in orphans, the sick and the indigenous people. And he treated them with such closeness, appreciation and love, that they looked like they were all family members.

Training himself to help
Seeing the needs of the village, Zatti perfected his profession. Gradually he became responsible for the hospital, studied and gained State credentials when requested. The doctors who worked with Artemides, such as doctors Molinari and Sussini, testify that Zatti possessed great medical knowledge, the result not only of his experience, but also of his studies.
Fr De Roia adds: “Speaking of cultural and professional training, I remember seeing medical books and publications and asking him once when he read them. He replied that he did so at night or while patients were taking a nap, once he had finished his duties in the hospital.”
A document, the “Credencial Profesional”, issued by the Secretary for Public Health of the Nation, qualified him with the “Matriculaprofesional de Enfermero N. 07253”. They were the studies he had carried out at the National University of La Plata in 1948, at the age of 67. Added to this is a previous certification, in 1917, as “Eligible” in Pharmacy.
His lifestyle led him to a commitment in which he directly met the poor, the sick, the most needy. For this reason, the nursing profession had an added value: its presence was a testimony to the goodness of God. This simple way of looking at reality can help us better understand Zatti’s life, paying particular attention to the term “directly”.
In this perspective we find what is most genuine in Zatti, which highlights what is defined as “religious life” or “consecration”. This is why Artemides is a Salesian saint. He was a holy nurse. This is the legacy he left everyone. And this is the challenge he issues to everyone and invites them to take up.

1908
Once his health recovered, Zatti entered the Salesian Congregation as a brother. He began taking care of the pharmacy at the San José hospital, the only one in Viedma.
1911
After the death of Fr Evasio Garrone, director of the hospital, Zatti remained in charge of the pharmacy and the hospital, the first in Patagonia. He worked there for forty years.
1917
He obtained the title of “Idóneo (Suitable) in Pharmacy” from the University of La Plata.
1941
The hospital building was demolished. Patients and professionals moved with Zatti to the “San Isidro” agricultural school.
1948
Zatti enrolled in Nursing at the University of La Plata.

Zatti with the doctors: he was a father!
Among Zatti’s main collaborators at San José Hospital were the doctors. The relationships were delicate, because a doctor was the director of the hospital from a legal point of view and had professional responsibility for the patients. Zatti had organisational and nursing responsibility and conflicts could arise. After the first years, several doctors came to Viedma, the capital of the Rio Negro, and to Patagones and Zatti had to make use of their specialisations at the hospital without arousing rivalry. He acted in such a way as to win everyone’s respect for his kindness and competence. We find the names of the directors in the documentation such as Dr Riccardo Spurr and Dr Francesco Pietrafraccia; then Antonio Gumersindo Sussini, Ferdinando Molinari, Pietro Echay, Pasquale Attilio Guidi and Giovanni Cadorna Guidi, who would speak about Zatti’s holiness. Finally, there were also Drs Harosteguy, Quaranta and Cessi. There were others, certainly, but temporarily because, after a period of internship, the doctors aspired to more central and developed locations. There was unanimous recognition that Zatti, as a nurse, was subject to the instructions and directions given by the doctors, but he was respected by them all for his kindness and gave them no cause for concern for the assistance he provided to patients in his own house. Dr Sussini, who followed him up until his death, declared: “All the doctors, without exception, showed him affection and respect for his personal virtues, kindness, mercy and his pure, sincere and disinterested faith[i].”
Dr Pasquale Attilio Guidi explained: “Always correct, he followed the doctors’ instructions. I remember that Dr Harosteguy, who was quite difficult, sometimes blamed Bro. Zatti for his problems when I was present during an operation, but at the end of the operation he would shake hands with him and apologise. So we knew there weren’t many complaints against Zatti. Zatti was someone respected by everyone[ii].” Dr Harosteguy’s daughter and Dr Echay confirmed Harosteguy’s strong character and the unjust complaints against Zatti, who won him over him with his resistance to such. Indeed, when Dr Harosteguy fell ill, he would only allow Zatti to visit him, grateful and appreciative for his presence and closeness.
Dr Molinari testified: “Bro. Zatti respected the medical body and strictly followed their instructions. Given the large number of patients who exclusively required his intervention, he had to act spontaneously very often, but always on the basis of his excellent skills, experience and medical knowledge. He never attempted difficult surgery. He always called for the doctor. We doctors had affection, respect and admiration for Bro. Zatti. This feeling was general […] I would say that the patients ‘worshipped’ Bro. Zatti and had blind faith in him[iii].”
Dr Echay makes this particular observation: “With all the staff of the Zatti hospital he was a father; even with us younger doctors he was a good adviser[iv].” Regarding the visits that Zatti made around the city, Dr Guidi says: “The doctors never looked upon this work of Zatti’s negatively, but as a collaboration. […]. The patients he helped would raise a monument to him[v].”
Even outsiders always saw close relationships of collaboration and respect between Zatti and the doctors, as witnessed by Fr López: “Bro. Zatti’s behaviour towards the doctors was seen by them as warm acceptance. All the doctors I spoke to were, without exception, his admirers[vi].” Fr López once again: “Zatti always had a reputation for kindness towards doctors, tolerance and humanity in the face of the rudeness typical of many doctors; in particular Dr Harosteguy was an abrupt individual and Zatti’s virtue in dealing with him can be deduced because he became an admirer of Zatti, even came close to revering him[vii].” Oscar Garcia puts it eloquently: “The doctors collaborated with the hospital in large part because Bro. Zatti was there, attracting people by his charity[viii].” His life shook the religious indifference of some of them: “When I look at Zatti, my unbelief wavers[ix].” In many cases there were conversions and the beginning of Christian life.

Zatti and the nurses: he was everything to us!
The largest group for the hospital service were female collaborators. The San José, at certain times had up to 70 beds: naturally, professionally trained nurses, kitchen helpers, laundry and ironing machines, cleaners and other staff were needed. It was not difficult to find staff for the lowliest and ordinary tasks because the population had many poor elements and employment in the hospital seemed particularly desirable and secure. It was more difficult to find nurses, because, perhaps throughout the country and certainly in Patagonia there were no schools to train them. Zatti had to deal with all this himself: choose, train, organise, assist the nurses, find what they needed to work with, think of wages to the point that he began the training of female staff for the hospital.
Providence brought several good but poor young people to the hospital who had themselves been ill and had recovered, and who wanted to do something with their life. Zatti was aware of their goodness and willingness; he showed by his own example and word how beautiful it was to serve the Lord in sick brothers and sisters. And then he made the suggestion that they stay with him and share the mission at the hospital. The best girls sensed the greatness and joy of this ideal and stayed at San José. Zatti took responsibility for preparing them professionally and – as a good religious – took care of their spiritual formation. Thus, as a group they ended up as a kind of congregation without vows, a group of chosen souls who chose to serve the poor. Zatti gave them everything they needed for life, even if he ordinarily did not pay them, and thought of good accommodation if they wanted to leave the service at the hospital. We should not think that the situation at that time required all the guarantees that hospitals require today. For those girls the solution offered by Zatti was an enviable one from the material point of view and just as much from a spiritual point of view. In fact they were happy, and when the San José Hospital closed, or before, none of them found it hard to set themselves up. As a group they always expressed their gratitude.
Fr Entraigas recalled 13 names of the female staff who worked at the hospital at different times. Among the documents are reports by the nurses: Noelia Morero, Teodolinda Acosta, Felisa Botte, Andrea Rafaela Morales, Maria Danielis. Noelia Morero tells her story, which was identical to the stories of several other nurses. She arrived at San José as a patient: “I was a patient here and then I began to work with the hospital until the end of 1944, when I moved to the National Regional Hospital in Viedma, which opened in 1945 […]. Zatti was much loved and respected by all staff and patients; he was everyone’s ‘handkerchief to wipe away tears’. I don’t remember any complaints against him. When Zatti entered the ward, it seemed that ‘God Himself’ entered! I don’t know how else to put it. He was everything to us. I never knew of any particular difficulties; as a patient I never lacked anything: not food, nor medicine, nor clothes. Bro. Zatti was mainly concerned with the moral training of the staff. I remember that he made us learn by practical lessons, accompanying him when he visited the sick and after one or two times he made us do it, especially with the most serious cases.[x]”

Film seen before the conference

Video of the conference: Zatti the Good Samaritan, for the sick, doctors and nurses
Lecture given by Fr Pierluigi CAMERONI, Postulator General of the Salesian Society of St John Bosco in Valdocco, on 15.11.2023.

[i] Testimony of Dr. Antonio Gumersindo Sussini. Positio – Summarium, p. 139, § 561.

[ii] Testimony from Attilio Guidi, pharmacist. He knew Zatti from 1926 to 1951. Positio – Summarium, p. 99, § 386.

[iii] Testimony of Dr Ferdinando Molinari. He knew Zatti from 1926 to 1951. He became a doctor at the San José Hospital and looked after him during his final illness. He gave the official address on the occasion of the inauguration of the monument to Zatti. Positio – Summarium, p. 147, § 600.

[iv] Testimony of Dr Pietro Echay. Positio – Informatio,p. 108.

[v] Testimony of Attilio Guidi, pharmacist. Positio – Summarium, p. 100, § 391.

[vi] Testimony of Father Feliciano López. Positio – Summarium, p. 171, § 694.

[vii] Ibid, p. 166, § 676.

[viii] Testimony of Oscar García, police employee. He met Zatti in 1925, but dealt with him mainly after 1935, both as a leader of the former students and as a member of the Workers Club. Positio – Summarium, p. 111, § 440.

[ix] Testimony of Father Feliciano López. Positio – Summarium, p. 181, § 737.

[x] Testimony of Noelia Morero, nurse. Positio – Informatio, p. 112.

            The chronicle of the Salesian college in Viedma recalls that, according to custom, on 15 March 1951 in the morning the bell announced the flight to heaven of Brother Artemides Zatti, and reported these prophetic words: “One less brother in the house and one more saint in heaven.”
            The canonisation of Artemides Zatti on 9 October 2022 is a gift of grace; the witness of holiness that the Lord gives us through this brother who lived his life in docility to the Holy Spirit, in the spirit of family typical of the Salesian charism, embodying fraternity towards his confreres and the Salesian community, and closeness towards the poor and the sick and anyone he met on his path, is a blessing to be welcomed and made to bear fruit.
            St Artemides Zatti turns out to be a model, intercessor and companion of Christian life, close to everyone. Indeed, his adventure presents him to us as a person who experienced the daily toil of existence with its successes and failures. It is enough to recall the separation from his native country to emigrate to Argentina; the tuberculosis that broke through like a hurricane in his young life, shattering every dream and every prospect for the future; seeing the hospital that he had built with so many sacrifices and which had become a sanctuary of God’s merciful love demolished. But Zatti always found in the Lord the strength to get back up and continue on his way.

Witness of hope
            For the dramatic times we are living in, marked by the pandemic, so many wars, by the climate emergency and above all by the crisis and the abandonment of faith of so many people, Artemides Zatti encourages us to live hope as a virtue and as an attitude of life in God. His story reminds us how the path to holiness very often requires a change of course and vision. Artemides, at different stages of his life, discovered the great opportunity in the Cross to be reborn and to start again, when:
            – as a boy, in the hard and tiring work of the countryside, he immediately learnt to face the hardships and responsibilities that would always accompany him in his mature years;
            – at the age of 17 he emigrated with his family to Argentina in search of greater fortune;
– as a young aspirant to Salesian life he was struck down by tuberculosis, infected by a young priest he was helping because he was very ill.
The young Zatti experienced in his own flesh the drama of the disease, not only as fragility and suffering of the body, but also as something that touched the heart, gave rise to fears and many questions, making the question of meaning emerge with everything that happened affecting the future that lay ahead of him, seeing that what he dreamed of, and yearned for, suddenly failed. In faith he turned to God, sought new meaning and a new direction for life to which he found neither immediate nor easy answers. Thanks to the wise and encouraging presence of Father Cavalli and Father Garrone, and reading life’s circumstances in a spirit of discernment and obedience, his Salesian vocation came to maturity as a brother, dedicating his whole life to the material and spiritual care of the sick and assistance to the poor and needy. He decided to stay with Don Bosco, living the original vocation of the brother to the full;
            – when he had to face trials, sacrifices and debts to carry out his mission on behalf of the poor and the sick by running the hospital and pharmacy, always trusting in the help of Providence;
            – when he saw the hospital, to which he had devoted so much energy and resources, being demolished to build a new one;
            – when in 1950 he fell from a ladder and the symptoms of a tumour appeared, which he himself had clearly diagnosed, and which would lead to his death, which then occurred on 15 March 1951. He nevertheless continued to attend to the mission to which he had consecrated himself, accepting the sufferings of this last stretch of his life.

The Easter exodus: from Bahía Blanca to Viedma
            In all probability, Artemides arrived in Bahía Blanca from Bernal in the second half of February 1902. The family received him with the sorrow and affection one can imagine. Above all, his mother devoted herself to him with much love so that he would recover his strength and health, given the extreme weakness he was in, and she wanted to cure him herself. The one who opposed this solution was Artemides himself. Now feeling closely attached to the Salesians, he wanted to obey what Bernal’s superiors had decided and go to Junín de los Andes to take care of his health. The overriding thought for him, and one he could no longer put off, was the desire to follow the vocation for which he had set out, to become a Salesian priest, and despite the darkness about his future, he would face every difficulty and sacrifice for it: he intended to renounce even his mother’s and family’s care, fearing that they might stop him in his resolve. He had encountered Jesus, heard his call, and wanted to follow him, even though it might not be in the ways he thought and desired.
            His parents, in order to solve their son’s problem, turned to the family counsellor Father Carlo Cavalli, who absolutely and providentially advised against sending Artemides to Junín, a place too far away for his weak strength. Instead, since it was precisely at that time that Father Evasio Garrone’s reputation as a doctor had established itself in Viedma, Father Cavalli very wisely thought it best to entrust him to him. The distance of only 500 km, with the means of transport of the time, made this solution worthwhile. The family agreed, the good parish priest paid for the journey on Mr Mora’s Galera and Artemides, convinced by his spiritual director, set off for Viedma.
            The Galera, a kind of horse-drawn coach, was the only public transport at the time able to travel from Bahía Blanca to Viedma, crossing the Colorado River. There was also the mishap when the Galera lost its way, so the travellers had to sleep outside and arrived on Tuesday and not Monday as planned. The journey must have been very painful, although Artemides “covers everything with the optimism of a saint with hunger and thirst for immolation. But what the poor man suffered only God knows.”

            Here is the text of the letter written by Artemides to his family immediately after his arrival in Viedma.

Dear parents and brothers and sisters
            Viedma, 5.3.902

            I arrived in Viedma yesterday morning, after a happy journey on the “Galera”, and today I am taking the opportunity to write to you to tell you that I went well, as I said, because the “Galera” was not so full of people and merchandise. I will only tell you that we were supposed to arrive on Monday at Patagones, but because we had lost our way, we slept in the field under open sky and arrived on Tuesday morning, where, with great joy, I found my Salesian confreres. As for my health, I was examined by doctor R. D. Garrone examined me and promised me that in a month I would be perfectly healthy. With the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our good Mother, and D. Bosco, I always hope for the best. Pray for me and I will pray for you and I sign myself yours

            ARTEMIDE ZATTI
            Goodbye to all

            This letter is a masterpiece of hope, a condensation of evangelical optimism: it is a parable of life where, despite the spectre of death hovering and the road being lost, there is a horizon that opens up to infinity. In that night, spent in the fields of Patagonia contemplating the stars, the young Artemides emerges from his turmoil, from his discouragement. Freed from looking only downwards, he can lift his eyes and look up to the sky to count the stars; freed from the sadness and fear of having no future, freed from the fear of being alone, from the fear of death, he has the experience that God’s goodness is as immense as a starry sky and that graces can be infinite, like the stars. So in the morning he arrives at Viedma as if in the promised land, where “with great joy” he is welcomed by those he already thinks of as his confreres, where he hears words and promises that speak of healing, where with full trust in “the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary our Good Mother and Don Bosco”, he arrives at the city where he would lavish his charity for the rest of his life. Having passed through the fords in the flooded Rio Colorado, he was also reborn with hope for his health and his future.

Kinsman of all the poor
            Artemides Zatti dedicated his life to God in the service of the sick and the poor, who became his treasures. In charge of the San José Hospital in Viedma, he widened the circle of those he cared for by reaching all the sick of the city, especially the poorest he and his bike! He managed a lot of money, but his life was very poor: for the trip to Italy on the occasion of Don Bosco’s canonisation, he had to borrow his suit, hat and suitcase. He was loved and greatly respected by the sick; loved and greatly respected by the doctors who gave him the utmost trust, and surrendered to the ascendancy that flowed from his holiness. The secret of so much ascendancy? For him, every sick person was Jesus himself. Literally! For his part, there was no doubt about it: he treated everyone with the same tenderness with which he would have treated Jesus himself, offering his own room in cases of emergency, or even placing a corpse there in times of need. He tirelessly continued his mission among the sick serenly until the end of his life, never taking a rest.
            With his upright attitude he restores to us a Salesian vision of “knowing how to remain” in our mission land to enlighten those in danger of losing hope, to strengthen the faith of those who feel they are failing, to be a sign of God’s love when it “seems” that He is absent from everyday life.
            All this led him to recognise the uniqueness of every sick person, with their dignity and frailty, knowing that the sick person is always more important than the disease, and this is why he took care to listen to the patients, to their story, their anxieties, their fears. He knew that even when it is not possible to heal, it is always possible to cure, it is always possible to console, it is always possible to make one feel a closeness that shows interest in the person before their illness. He stopped by, listened, established a direct and personal relationship with the sick person, felt empathy and emotion for them, allowed himself o be involved in their suffering.
Artemides experienced closeness to people as an expression of the love of Jesus Christ, the Good Samaritan whose compassion brought him close to every human being wounded by sin. He felt called to be merciful like the Father and to love, in particular, his sick, weak and suffering brothers and sisters. Zatti established a pact between himself and those in need of care, a pact based on mutual trust and respect, sincerity, availability, so as to overcome all defensive barriers, putting the dignity of the sick person at the centre. Zatti found the inexhaustible source for this relationship with the sick person in the charity of Christ.
            And he lived this closeness, as well as personally in community: in fact he generated a community capable of caring, which does not abandon anyone, which includes and welcomes especially the most fragile. Artemides’ witness to being a Good Samaritan, to being merciful like the Father, was a mission and a style that involved all those who in some way dedicated themselves to the hospital: doctors, nurses, caregivers, religious, volunteers who gave precious time to those who were suffering. At Zatti’s school, their service alongside the sick, carried out with love and competence, became a mission. Zatti knew and inculcated the awareness that the hands of all those who were with him touched the suffering flesh of Christ and should be a sign of the merciful hands of the Father.

Salesian brother
            The attractive figure of Artemides Zatti is an invitation to propose to young people the fascination of consecrated life, the radical nature of following the obedient, poor and chaste Christ, the primacy of God and the Spirit, fraternal life in community, spending oneself totally for the mission. The vocation of the Salesian brother is part of the character that Don Bosco wanted to give to the Salesian Congregation. It blossoms more easily where apostolic lay vocations are promoted among the young and a joyful and enthusiastic witness of religious consecration is offered to them, like that of Artemides Zatti.

Artemides Zatti – the saint!
            Following in the footsteps of St Francis de Sales, who promoted the vocation to holiness for all, the testimony of Artemides Zatti reminds us, as the Second Vatican Council states, that: “all the faithful of every state and condition are called by the Lord, each in his own way, to a holiness whose perfection is that of the heavenly Father himself.” St Francis de Sales, Don Bosco and Artemides make daily life an expression of God’s love, received and reciprocated. Artemides Zatti’s testimony enlightens us, attracts us and also challenges us, because it is the “Word of God” incarnated in history and close to us.
            Through the parable of Artemides Zatti’s life, his experience of God’s unconditional and gratuitous love stands out above all. First and foremost, it was not the works he performed, but the amazement of discovering himself loved and the faith in this providential love in every season of life. From this lived certainty flowed the totality of self-giving to his neighbour for the love of God. The love he received from the Lord was the power that transformed his life, expanded his heart and predisposed him to love. With the same Spirit, the Spirit of holiness, love that heals and transforms us, Artemides:
            – from an early age made choices and performed acts of love in every situation and with every brother and sister he met, because he felt loved and had the strength to love;
            – while still a teenager in Italy, experienced the hardships of poverty and work, but laid the foundations of a solid Christian life, giving the first proofs of his generous charity;
            – emigrating with his family to Argentina, knew how to preserve and increase his faith, resisting an often immoral and anti-Christian environment and maturing, thanks to the encounter with the Salesians and the spiritual accompaniment of Father Carlo Cavalli, in his aspiration to Salesian life, accepting the need to go back to the desks in school with twelve year old boys, despite his twenty years of age;
            – readily offered to assist a priest sick with tuberculosis and contracted the disease, without uttering a word of complaint or recrimination, but experiencing the illness as a time of trial and purification, bearing its consequences with fortitude and serenity;
            – cured in an extraordinary way, through the intercession of Mary Help of Christians, after making the promise to dedicate his life to the sick and the poor, he lived his apostolic consecration as a Salesian brother in a radically gospel way and with Salesian joy;
            – lived the ordinary rhythm of his days in an extraordinary way: faithful and edifying practice of religious life in joyful fraternity; sacrificial service at all hours and with all the humblest of services to the sick and the poor; continuous struggle against poverty, in the search for resources and benefactors to meet debts, trusting exclusively in Providence; ready availability for all human misfortunes that asked for his intervention; resistance to every difficulty and acceptance of every adverse case; self-mastery and joyful and optimistic serenity that communicated itself to all those who approached him.

Seventy-one years of this life before God and before people: a life delivered with joy and fidelity to the end, embodied in daily life, in hospital wards, on his bicycle through the streets of Viedma, in the travails of daily life to meet demands and needs of all kinds, doing everyday things in a spirit of service, with love and without show, without claiming anything, with the joy of self-giving, enthusiastically embracing his vocation as a Salesian brother and becoming a shining reflection of the Lord.

Film seen before the conference

Video of the conference: The great gift of holiness of Artemide Zatti
Lecture given by Fr Pierluigi CAMERONI, Postulator General of the Salesian Society of St John Bosco in Turin-Valdocco, on 14.11.2023.

            Dominic Savio arrived at the Valdocco Oratory in the autumn of 1854, at the end of the deadly plague that had decimated the city of Turin. He immediately became friends with Michael Rua, John Cagliero, John Bonetti and Joseph Bongiovanni, with whom he went to school in the city. In all likelihood he knew nothing of the “Salesian Society” that Don Bosco had begun to speak about to some of his young men in January of that year. But the following spring he had an idea that he confided to Joseph Bongiovanni. There were wonderful boys in the Oratory, but there were also lukewarm ones who behaved badly, and there were boys who were struggling with their studies, homesick. Everyone tried to help them individually. Why couldn’t the more willing young people join together, in a ‘secret society’, to become a compact group of little apostles in the mass of others? Joseph agreed. They talked about it with some others. They liked the idea. It was decided to call the group the Immaculate Conception Sodality. Don Bosco gave his consent: they would try it out, draw up a small set of rules. From the minutes of the Sodality preserved in the Salesian Archives, we know that there were about ten members who met once a week: Michael Rua (who was elected president), Dominic Savio, Joseph Bongiovanni (elected secretary), Celestine Durando, John B. Francesia, John Bonetti, cleric Angelo Savio, Joseph Rocchietti, John Turchi, Louis Marcellino, Joseph Reano, Francis Vaschetti. John Cagliero was absent because he was convalescing after a serious illness and was living at home with his mother. The concluding article of the rules, approved by everyone including Don Bosco, said, “A sincere, filial, unlimited trust in Mary, a special tenderness towards her, constant devotion will help us overcome every obstacle, be tenacious in our resolutions, strict with ourselves, loving towards our neighbour, exact in everything.”
            The members of the Sodality chose to “look after” two categories of boys, who in the secret language of the minutes were called “clients”. The first category were the unruly ones, those who easily used bad language and their fists. Each member would take one of them in and act as his “guardian angel” for as long as necessary (Michele Magone had a persevering “guardian angel”’!). The second category were the newcomers. They helped them through the first few days when they did not yet know anyone, did not know how to play, spoke only the dialect of their hometown, and were homesick. (Francesco Cerruti had Dominic Savio as his “guardian angel”, and recounted their first encounters with simple enchantment).
            In the minutes one can see the unfolding of each meeting: a moment of prayer, a few minutes of spiritual reading, a mutual exhortation to go to Confession and Communion; “then the entrusted clients are discussed. Patience and trust in God was urged for those who seemed entirely deaf and insensitive; prudence and gentleness towards those who were easy to persuade.”
            Comparing the names of the participants in the Immaculate Coneption Sodality with the names of the first to enrol in the Pious Society, one has the moving impression that the “Soadlity” was the “dress rehearsal” for the Congregation that Don Bosco was about to found. It was the small field where the first seeds of Salesian flourishing germinated. The “Sodality” became the leaven of the Oratory. It turned ordinary boys into little apostles with a very simple formula: a weekly meeting with a prayer, listening to few good pages, a mutual exhortation to go to the Sacraments, a concrete programme on how and whom to help in the environment where they lived, a good-natured chat to share successes and failures of the days just gone by. Don Bosco was very pleased. And he wanted it to be transplanted in every new Salesian work, so that there too it would be a focus for committed youngsters and future Salesian and priestly vocations. In the four pages of advice that Don Bosco gave to Michael Rua who was going to found the first Salesian house outside Turin, at Mirabello (they are one of the best summaries of his educational system and would be given to every new Salesian director) we read these two lines: “Try to start the Immaculate Conception Sodality, but you will only be its promoter and not its director; consider it as a work of the young people themselves.” In every Salesian work a group of committed young people, named as we see fit, but a photocopy of the ancient ‘”Immaculate Conception Soadlity”! Would this not be the secret that Don Bosco confided to us to make Salesian and priestly vocations germinate again? It is a certainty: the Salesian Congregation was founded and expanded by involving young people, who allowed themselves to be convinced by Don Bosco’s apostolic passion and his dream of life. We must tell young people the story of the Congregation’s beginnings, of which young people were the “co-founders”. The majority (Rua, Cagliero, Bonetti, Durando, Marcellino, Bongiovanni, Francesia, Lazzero) were companions of Dominic Savio and members of the Sodality; and twelve were faithful to Don Bosco until their death. It is to be hoped that this “founding” fact will help us to involve today’s young people more and more in the apostolic commitment for the salvation of other young people.