Sr. Francesca was invited to highlight a parallel between these two recently canonized Salesian saints on the occasion of the fourth liturgical commemoration of St. Artemide Zatti, on 13 November 2025.
Below is her reflection:
Two Giants of Salesian Holiness
The theme entrusted to me is to draw a parallel between these two giants of Salesian holiness – Zatti and Troncatti – canonized on 9 October 2022 and 19 October 2025 respectively. In my research, I identified more than thirty similarities in their lives, personalities, events, and choices that God, in His loving creativity, allowed to intertwine. For reasons of time, I highlight only a few.
Firstborn
Zatti is the first non-martyr Salesian Brother to be canonized. Troncatti is the first FMA Saint after the co-foundress.
Origins and Vocation
Zatti was Italian, born in Boretto (Reggio Emilia) in the 1880s. His middle name was Maria. He worked in the fields as a boy and experienced the pain of emigration, moving with his family to Argentina. As a Salesian Brother, he fully lived Don Bosco’s dream: serving the poorest and the sick, especially the indigenous.
Troncatti, also Italian, was born in Corteno Golgi (Brescia) in the same decade. Her first name was Maria, and she too came from a farming family. In 1905 she endured the heartbreak of leaving home for the convent in Nizza Monferrato. Her father fainted from grief as she departed. In 1922, when she returned home to ask permission to leave for the missions, her parents told her: “Imagine two coffins before you.” The separation from her homeland, family, language, and culture was so deep that she never wanted to return to Italy. She would say, “When you give yourself once, you give yourself forever.”
Illness as God’s Path
Both experienced illness at the beginning of their Salesian journey.
In the early 1900s, Zatti, then a Salesian aspirant, contracted tuberculosis while caring for a sick confrere. He was sent to Junín de los Andes in 1902 to recover—where Blessed Laura Vicuña was living in the FMA school. His dream of becoming a priest was shattered by illness, but he embraced it as Providence’s plan and chose to become a Salesian Brother.
Sr. Maria Troncatti had fragile health during her postulancy and novitiate. The demanding community life weakened her, but prayer to the Sacred Heart and Don Bosco restored her peace. A serious finger infection—possibly requiring amputation—led the Superiors to allow her to profess vows sub conditione in 1908. A year later, she contracted typhoid and nearly died. After being moved to Nizza, she met Don Rua, who prayed with her to Mary Help of Christians and Don Bosco. She recovered miraculously and continued her vocation.
Two Promises to Mary Help of Christians
Both made a vow to Mary Help of Christians at a decisive moment.
When Fr. Garrone saw Zatti’s health worsening, he urged him to trust in Our Lady. Zatti promised that if he recovered, he would dedicate his entire life to the sick. He was healed. His vow is summed up in the famous words: “I believed, I promised, I was healed.”
Sr. Maria found herself in mortal danger during the devastating flood of 25 June 1915 in Varazze. The water destroyed the perimeter wall and swept through the rooms where she and Sr. Chiara were staying. She vowed to Our Lady:
“If you save me, and save my brother Giacomino who is at the front, I promise to go as a missionary.”
Miraculously spared, she submitted her mission request on 4 November to serve among lepers.
Nurses by Vocation
Both dedicated themselves professionally to caring for the sick.
Zatti, unable to become a priest, kept his promise by studying nursing, and in 1905 he also became a certified pharmacist.
Sr. Maria, in 1915, was sent to attend a Red Cross nursing course in preparation for WWI. She learned the delicate art of caring and discovered that more painful than bodily wounds are the wounds of the heart.
Signs of God’s Will
For both, suffering became a revelation of God’s plan.
For Zatti, tuberculosis led him to embrace the vocation of Salesian Brother.
For Sr. Maria, God’s call came through a young sick woman who predicted her mission to Ecuador. Days later, Mother Caterina Daghero officially assigned her to that mission.
Same Spirit, Same Heart
Both were known by affectionate names:
Zatti: “the relative of all the poor” Troncatti: “the good little mother”
Both founded hospitals and trained nurses: Zatti to ensure steady staff for the hospital; Troncatti to send trained young women into jungle villages.
Both made home visits—Zatti on his bicycle with his rosary, Troncatti with her medical kit and rosary, on foot or horseback.
Both had a special love for the most abandoned sick.
Miracles and Don Bosco’s Spirit
Even the miracles recognized for their canonizations are similar: both involve healing of the brain—Zatti from a cerebellar stroke, Troncatti from severe head trauma—and in both cases the beneficiaries were poor.
Both lived Don Bosco’s recommendation to missionaries:
“Take special care of the sick, the children, the elderly, and the poor, and you will gain God’s blessing and the goodwill of the people.”
Conclusion
It seems the Lord delighted in weaving their lives together in a surprising harmony of grace.
Zatti and Troncatti appear as true spiritual twins: different in their personal stories, yet united by the same Spirit; sharing the same sentiments of Christ (cf. Phil 2:5), driven by the apostolic passion of Da mihi animas.
Sr. Francesca Caggiano
