Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) - Blessed Artemide Zatti, Professed Layman of the Salesian Society of Saint John Bosco, born in Italy (October 12, 1880, Boretto) and died in Argentina (March 15, 1951, Viedma), where his family emigrated driven by the search for a better life, will be canonized on Sunday, October 9 in St. Peter's Square, together with Blessed Monsignor Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, father of emigrants.
Among the reasons for the event is also the fact that Artemide Zatti will be the first Salesian coadjutor -consecrated, but not a priest- to be proclaimed a saint. Pierluigi Cameroni, SDB, General Postulator for the Causes of Saints of the Salesian Family, draws a missionary profile on his figure.
Artemide Zatti: Good Samaritan missionary of compassion
The human and Christian adventure of Artemide Zatti presents him to us as a person who experienced, with his successes and failures, the daily work of existence. It is enough to remember the separation from his native country to emigrate to Argentina; the tuberculosis disease that broke like a hurricane in his young existence, destroying all dreams and all prospects for the future; to see demolished the hospital that he had built with so many sacrifices and that had become a sanctuary of God's merciful love. But Zatti always found in the Lord the strength to get up again and continue his journey.
Artemide 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. He transformed life into a gift, working with generosity and intelligence, overcoming difficulties of all kinds with his unwavering trust in divine Providence.
The lesson of faith, hope and charity that he leaves us becomes, if properly known and motivated, in a courageous work of safeguarding and promoting the most authentic human and Christian values.
The places where Artemisa lived, first the Christian communities of Boretto and then Bahía Blanca, the city of Viedma where he spent most of his life with a great missionary spirit, remind us that grace can also be incarnated…
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