Memorial : 17 January
Born
- 7 January 1916 at Bellagio, Como, Italy
Died
- Beaten to death by a guard on 12 January 1945 at Hersbruck, NΓΌrnberger Land, Germany
- Cremated at the Hersbruck camp and his ashes dumped in a common grave
Venerated
- 14 December 2015 by Pope Francis (decree of heroic virtues)
- 16 June 2017 by Pope Francis (decree of martyrdom)
Beatified
- 3 February 2018 by Pope Francis
- Beatification recognition celebrated at Palazzetto di Vigevano, Vigevano, Italy presided by Cardinal Angelo Amato
The martyrs under Nazism :
The great massacre planned by Hitler's Germans against the Jewish people must be joined by the sacrifice of many figures of priests, religious and lay people, who spent their lives in the concrete help of the persecuted of that sad period of the history of Europe.
Some have already been raised to the honors of the altars, but many others are sent to the official recognition of their martyrdom and their holiness in the same historical context. This is the case, for example, of Teresio Olivelli.
Childhood and adolescence :
Teresio was born in Bellagio, in the province and diocese of Como, on 7 January 1916, son of Domenico Olivelli and Clelia Invernizzi. He spent his childhood between Carugo Brianza and Zeme Lomellina (Pavia), receiving a profoundly Christian education from his parents and his uncle Don Rocco Invernizzi.
At the age of 10, in 1926, the family moved to Mortara in the province of Pavia, where Teresio attended gymnasium, becoming passionate about Latin. His adolescence revealed him full of vitality and capable of not being afraid of anything or anyone.
He ardently professed his love for Jesus, not caring about those who derided him. His faith was crystal clear: every week he approached the sacrament of confession and received daily communion in the parish of San Lorenzo. He meditated every day the Word of God on the Gospels and on the text of the "Imitation of Christ".
Young high school student in Vigevano :
At the high school in Vigevano (Pavia) he distinguished himself among his peers for intelligence and maturity. Sedicenne, he undertook Catholic Action, colloquying fraternally with everyone: he took part in many conferences on religious and social issues and organized it himself. When, in 1931, the Catholic Action circles were forcibly closed, the young Teresio became inflamed against the Fascist regime, saying: "O Mussolini changes course or we change it!"
Referring to the apostles James and John, called by Jesus "sons of thunder" for their zealous and impetuous character, he often stated that, having been born and baptized in the parish of St. James, he too had to become "son of thunder".
At the University of Pavia :
At 18, he was a confident young man, tall and slender, with a firm faith, in other words a convinced and credible Catholic. He enrolled at the Faculty of Law of the University of Pavia, staying at the Ghislieri University College (founded by St. Pius V): he attended it from 1934 to 1938, the year in which he graduated with honors.
In those years in Pavia, Teresio won the affection of professors and classmates, for his generosity and the spirit of sacrifice, for the devotion with which he prayed during Mass and with which he was in adoration before the Eucharist . He, so cheerful and cultured, immersed himself in long and intense prayers with the Rosary in his hand, isolating himself from everyone: he thus deserved, between the admired and the playful, the nickname of "Father Oliva" from the companions of the college.
As a member of the Fuci, he undertook to bring evangelical values to the various social environments, especially in the university world.
His reaction to the Spanish civil war :
In 1936 the civil war broke out in Spain: the Church suffered one of the most ferocious persecutions of the modern era, with thousands of priests, religious and lay Catholics, killed by the communist and anarchist revolutionary militias.
Teresio, now in his twenties, immediately proposed himself as a volunteer to fight the Godless. To his uncle, Father Rocco, he wrote: "Youth is either heroic or miserable. The man at the idea can not give half measures of himself, he gives everything. When then Christ is the Ideal that impels us, I believe that the duty is realized in totalitarian love to Him and must be consumed until the last drop. Either faith is experienced as conquest or it is anemia of invertebrates. In Catholic Spain, the Divine is fought in us, to overcome the anti-Christ, the denial of man and of Christ. The future does not belong to the soft. Life is perfect when love is perfect ".
His family members prevented him from leaving, but from that moment Teresio, while continuing his studies, devoted himself to prayer and self-offering, so that Christ triumphed not only in Spain but also in Russia prey to atheistic Bolshevism.
University assistant in Turin :
Almost immediately after graduating, he was assistant professor of Administrative Law at the University of Turin. During his stay in that city, he also undertook to take young stragglers on the right path and took care of the poor of Cottolengo. For him it was a period of intense work, studies and research on legal and social issues.
Relations with fascism :
He participated in the cultural life inspired by the ruling regime, but Fascism never accepted violence, oppression, the cult of the race: its ideal was to stay inside the society and institutions of the time, to Christianize them.
It was the moment when much of the Catholic world believed that it was possible to apply Christian principles to fascism. Teresio, therefore, worked with the ambitious aim of detaching the regime from the German National Socialism as much as possible.
He won the "Littorali della Cultura" of Trieste (competitions of oratory skills and cultural preparation), supporting the thesis that establishes the equal dignity of the human person, regardless of race. He then wrote legal and social articles in the university newspaper "Libro e Muschetto" and in the journal "CiviltΓ Fascista". Finally he was appointed Littore and secretary of the Institute of Fascist Culture and a member and first secretary to the Office of Studies and Legislation at Palazzo Littorio.
In Berlin :
In 1939 and in 1941, for reasons of study, he stayed in Berlin. At that time he came into contact with the culture and politics of half of Europe, in Prague, Berlin, Vienna and then in Rome at the National Institute of Culture.
Thanks to his intelligence, he soon discovered the reality that surrounded him and the hatred of opposing ideologies, which developed violence in every sense. The news of the occupation of various nations by the Nazis began to grow in anguish: the Second World War had broken out.
In the war between the Alpini :
In June 1940, Italy also went to war alongside the German ally. Meanwhile Teresio had been called to military service: he refused the exemption to stay near the soldiers. In 1940 he was appointed officer of the Alpini and asked to go volunteer in the war of Russia.
On September 10th he found himself on the front line: despite being at the head of the 31st Battery, he shared without privileges the dangers and the sufferings of his soldiers. He provided them with help of all kinds: in short, he appeared to them as a big brother rather than a superior in rank.
In the retreat of Russia :
In the Christmas of 1942, during the tremendous Russian winter on the banks of the Don, he read and commented the Gospel to the soldiers. He finally managed to confess and make Communion, participating in the field Mass.
During the disastrous retreat of the Italian troops of the VIII Armata, ill equipped for that frost and attacked by the Russians, the second lieutenant Olivelli lavished on the wounded and frozen: he comforted the desperate and assisted the dying, revealing his human and Christian virtues. He often lingered in the march to help the fallen, regardless of the grave danger. He went through these terrible conditions two thousand kilometers on foot.
The return to Italy :
Teresio returned to Italy with the survivors in March 1943, deeply marked in his spirit and increasingly eager to give all of himself to others, especially if suffering. His first occupation was to inform the families about the fate of the soldiers, by letter or personally, also by taking an interest in the prisoners.
A few months later, at the age of 27, he won the Rector's competition at the Ghislieri College of Pavia. The charge lasted a few months, because in July 1943 he was recalled again under arms in the 2nd Alpine Artillery Regiment, stationed in Vipiteno.
The capture and the escape :
Shortly thereafter, after the September 8 armistice, Italy was invaded by the Germans. Teresio, who deeply loved his homeland, refused to surrender himself to Hitler's troops, so as not to be complicit in their occupation. As a result, on 9 September 1943, he was captured and imprisoned in a prison camp in Innsbruck. Indomitable, he tried to escape first from Hall, the second time from Regensburg, but without success. Only on the third attempt, on the night between 20 and 21 October, he managed to escape from the Markt Pongau camp.
After a long and exhausting march reached Italy, finding refuge with the Ariis family of Udine. He recovered his health, but by now he was a clandestine. He therefore came into contact with the Catholic Resistance of Bresciano: under the name of the battle of Agostino Gracchi, he received the task of maintaining the connections between the partisans of Cremona and Brescia.
The foundation of "Il Ribelle" :
Convinced that the reconstruction of Italy would not have been possible without the complete recovery of Christian values, was concerned with spreading the need for rebellion of consciences and minds rather than arms.
For this purpose, at the beginning of 1944, he founded "Il Ribelle", a clandestine sheet linking Catholic-inspired partisans, the first issue of which came out on March 5th. In the newspaper he published the article "Rebels", a manifesto of the moral revolt against fascism and its time, and a prayer, commonly called the "Rebel Prayer", considered the highest spiritual testimony of the whole Catholic Resistance (reported in end of card).
The new arrest and deportation :
On April 27, 1944 he was arrested in Milan by the fascist police and locked up in the San Vittore prison, where he suffered beatings and torture until June 8, when he was sent to the concentration camp of Fossoli near Modena, from where he tried to escape, fortunately escaping the shooting.
In August 1944 he was deported to the concentration camp of Gries (Bolzano) and his coat was applied not only to the red triangle of political prisoners, but also to the red-rimmed white disk of the fugitive prisoners, who needed to be monitored more.
Even in Gries he tried to escape, taking refuge in a warehouse, where he remained hidden for about a month. Discovered, he was wildly beaten and in September 1944 transferred to Flossenburg in Bavaria.
Charity and "priestly substitence" :
The conditions of life became unbearable, but Teresio did not give up: his faith and his charity were opposed to the hatred and violence of the torturers. He confronted the SS by speaking German perfectly, to save the others punishments, sometimes subduing them in their place. In the evening he organized the recitation of the Rosary and, more generally, played a role of "priestly substitution", that is, of religious assistance.
After 40 days of arrival, he was sent along with others to the satellite camp in Hersbruck. The surviving prisoners later remembered him for his serenity and courage, for the solidarity with the most exposed inmates: he was reduced to the extreme of his strength, due to the many beatings and tortures he suffered.
He assisted his friend Odoardo Focherini, originally from Carpi, interned for his relief work to the Jews and forced to be admitted to the infirmary for a serious leg injury. He had time to gather his last words before he died on December 27, 1944; Blessed since 2013.
Death :
In early January 1945, while Teresio served as a shield with his emaciated and wounded body to a young Ukrainian beaten up unjustly, the irritated capoblocco launched a violent kick to his belly, followed by twenty-five beats.
Hospitalized in the infirmary of the Hersbruck camp, he remained lucid and praying to the last. He died on January 17, 1945, at age 29, after having donated the last intact clothes to a friend.
The beginning of the cause of beatification :
Civil recognition, such as the Gold Medal for Military Valor, conferred on April 25, 1953, has always been accompanied by a widespread reputation of holiness about the figure of Teresio Olivelli. After the preliminary steps of collecting documents and looking for surviving witnesses, the diocesan inquiry was instituted.
After having obtained the authorization to transfer the trial from the diocese of Bamberg (in whose territory Hersbruck is located) to that of Vigevano (in which Teresio had passed two thirds of his life), the diocesan process could be started. The first session took place on 29 March 1987, while the last one was celebrated on 16 September 1989.
A "double track" case :
The "Positio" was completed in 2007, but the then postulator presented a double evidential apparatus or "Informatio": one aimed at demonstrating the heroic virtues, the other to prove death in hatred of the faith. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints then announced that it was necessary to continue on the path of virtues, as it is richer in evidence.
In 2011, after some technical-editorial changes, the "Positio" was published, which on 24 May 2011 the peculiar Congress of historical experts approved unanimously.
On September 14, 2012, the postulator asked to change the address of the case: as a result, on July 21, 2013 a supplementary "Positio super martyrio" was presented.
On December 17, 2013 the theological Consultors discussed both ways and affirmed that, since it was not sufficiently demonstrable that the persecutors had acted in hatred of the faith, it was necessary to continue to verify the heroic nature of the virtues. However, postulation had to produce some clarifications about some apparently controversial aspects of Olivelli's life.
In December 2014, the cause was again examined by the theological consultors, in this case positively. A year later, on December 1, 2015, the Ordinary Session of Cardinals and Bishops members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints spoke favorably about the heroic exercise of Christian virtues by the Servant of God.
Finally, on December 14, 2015, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation to promulgate the decree by which Teresio Olivelli was declared Venerable.
In the end, recognized as a martyr :
The road to the recognition of martyrdom was resumed in 2016, with a careful work by the postulation, to respond promptly to the findings expressed by the theological consultors and to specify the martyrial circumstances.
On March 7, 2017, a new Congress of the Theological Consultors examined the new tests, positively pronouncing. Also on 6 June, the Cardinals and Bishops of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints declared themselves in favor of recognizing Olivelli's death in hatred of the faith.
On 16 June 2017, therefore, Pope Francis gave his consent to the promulgation of the decree by which, officially and definitively, Teresio Olivelli could be declared a martyr. The beatification was celebrated on February 3, 2018, at the Vigevano Palasport.
Lord make us free (Rebel Prayer)
LORD, among the men, you drenched Your Cross a sign of contradiction, that you preached and suffered the revolt of the spirit against the perfidies and interests of the rulers, the inert deafness of the mass, oppressed by a yoke burdensome and cruel that in us and before us, has trampled The source of free lives, gives strength to rebellion.
GOD, who are Truth and Liberty, make us free and intense: breath in our purpose, strive our will, multiply our strength, vestici of Your armor. We pray to you, Lord.
YOU who were rejected, vituperated, betrayed, persecuted, crucified, in the hour of darkness sustain us your victory: be in viatic avoidance, in the danger of support, comfort in bitterness. The more the adversary grows dark and angry, make us clear and straight.
In our torture, our lips are tortured. Break it, do not let it fold.
If we fall, let our blood be united to your innocent and that of our dead to grow justice and charity to the world.
YOU who said: "I am the resurrection and the life" make a generous and severe life in pain to Italy. Free us from the temptation of affections: watch over our families.
On the windy mountains and in the catacombs of the cities, from the depths of the prisons,
we pray to you: be in us the peace that You alone can give.
God of peace and armies, Lord who bears the sword and joy, hears the prayer of us rebels for love.
Source : https://www.teresioolivelli.com/
