“My programme of life is summed up in one word: holy.“
Blessed Alberto Marvelli
Saint of the Day Quote: Blessed Alberto Marvelli
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Funny that you should post this, because I was just wondering if there were any saints out there who had lived through wartime conditions as civilians — NOT martyrs, and not necessarily military veterans, but who had survived the war and taken part in recovery/rebuilding efforts afterward. And whaddya know, here’s a perfect example, since his death was accidental and not related to the war.
“Alberto began to keep a spiritual diary at age 15 in which he detailed his daily schedule:
‘I rise as early as possible each morning, as soon as the alarm rings; a half-hour of meditation every day, not to be neglected except for circumstances out of my control; half an hour at least dedicated to spiritual reading; Mass every morning and Holy Communion as regularly as possible; confession once a week normally and frequent spiritual direction; daily recitation of the Rosary and Angelus at noon.’”
“During the Second World War, the Marvelli family was forced to move to Vergiano, seven kilometres from Rimini, because of the devastating air raids. After each bombing, however, at the risk of his own life, Alberto returned to the city to help the wounded, dying and homeless.”
“He gave to the poor what he had collected or bought with his own money: food, clothing, mattresses and blankets. Then, on his bicycle, he would carry what he could and distribute it to the needy. Sometimes he returned home without his shoes or even without a bicycle, all because he had given them to the neediest he met that day.”
“During the German occupation, Alberto was able to save many people from deportation to the concentration camps, courageously freeing them from the sealed carriages of the trains that were ready to leave the station of Santarcangelo.“
“On the evening of 5 October 1946, as Alberto was cycling to attend a meeting for the local elections, for which he was a candidate, he was run over by an army truck and died a few hours later without regaining consciousness. He was 28 years old.”
—Biography from Vatican.VA
All of which I knew nothing, until this little reference in TAC.