Vatican – St. Artemide Zatti: Salesian Brothers’ voices from St. Peter's Square

09 October 2022

(ANS - Vatican City) - Among the approximately 50,000 faithful who flocked to St. Peter's Square for the canonization of Blesseds Giovanni Battista Scalabrini and Artemide Zatti were several hundred Salesian brothers who came from all over the world. We met some of them who testified to us with their words all their enthusiasm and joy at the recognition of the holiness embodied by Zatti: a holiness of daily life and joy; a holiness that testifies to the beauty of Consecrated Life and Salesian consecration specifically; the holiness of those who seek and fulfill God's will.

From the land of Don Bosco, in the Piedmont and Aosta Valley Special Circumscription, there are, for example, among the coadjutors: Domenico Francesco Allasia, Fabrizio Spina, and José Eusebio Trigona, originally from Argentina, the land where Zatti lived all his holy Salesian life.

Br. Allasia, the eldest of the three, began, "I am very happy with this occasion, because it is a way to make known even more the vocation of the Salesian brother, and in his specific case, of the coadjutor who becomes a saint by doing ordinary things, with faith, trust, and sacrifice; but at the same time also with joy with happiness, with satisfaction with his work, without seeking more than what he was asked to do."

Br. Spina, for his part, manifests, "The sense of gratitude for being here in this place is enormous; we don't realize how many people have worked, have done everything to make sure that the whole Salesian world is here today. Really it is for us truly a great, a huge grace. To be lived, above all, without attaching ourselves to the 'role,' but understanding, thanks to the figure of Artemide Zatti, that being a Salesian is the important thing: not to have a role, to have power, to have titles, but to be a Salesian - not to do Salesian, to be one! This is truly a gift I receive to be here today."

Br. Trigona finally concludes, "In addition to everything we have heard in these days, both from the Pope and from the Rector Major, I think the important thing that Zatti teaches us is to do God's will, to seek it and to do it, even when sometimes there are adversities. And another great message also concerns the richness of being religious, beyond titles. While, in the Church today generally, as the Pope says, there is a strong clerical mentality, Artemide Zatti makes us see the value and beauty of religious life in itself."

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