He was arrested on Sept. 29, 1944, the same day Marchioni was killed, and held for two days. On Oct. 1, SS troops executed him along with 44 other prisoners. Witnesses said he raised his hand to give his fellow prisoners a final blessing before they were shot. He was 32.
With the pope’s decree, both priests can now be beatified.
4 Catholics advance on the path to sainthood
During an audience with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Pope Leo also approved decrees recognizing the heroic virtues of four other Catholics, declaring them venerable: Australian doctor and nun Mary Glowrey (1887–1957), Brazilian consecrated laywoman Maria de Lourdes Guarda (1926–1996), Italian Archbishop Enrico Bartoletti (1916–1976), and Italian priest Gaspare Goggi (1877–1908).
Glowrey, later known as Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart, left Australia in 1920 to serve as a doctor and missionary in India. She treated hundreds of poor patients daily, learned local languages, and founded what became the Catholic Hospital Association. Pope Benedict XIV granted her special permission to perform medical work “in bonum animarum,” making her the first nun, doctor, and missionary, according to the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.
De Lourdes Guarda, a member of the Secular Institute Caritas Christi in Brazil, spent decades paralyzed and bedridden after a sudden illness at age 21. She offered her suffering in prayer and became a national leader in promoting dignity and rights for people with disabilities, even as her health deteriorated from kidney disease, gangrene, and eventually cancer.
Bartoletti, later archbishop of Lucca and secretary-general of the Italian bishops’ conference, was a biblical scholar who openly opposed the Nazi persecution of Jews and collaborated with Jewish relief groups during the war. After Pope Pius XII named him a bishop, Bartoletti contributed to the Second Vatican Council and guided the Italian Church through major social reforms.
Goggi, a priest of the Little Work of Divine Providence founded by St. Luigi Orione, served as the first rector of the Church of Sant’Anna inside Vatican City. Known for his devotion to parishioners and his reputation for holiness, he was often sought out for confession. He suffered a severe physical and mental decline in his final months and died in 1908 at age 31.
Each of the four new venerables will require two miracles attributed to their intercession to be canonized as saints.
Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.
