(ANS - Rome) - In the month dedicated to the memory of All Saints, the  Salesian Family remembers Blessed Artemide Zatti, SDB, and Blessed Maddalena Morano, FMA.

November 13: Blessed Artemide Zatti
Artemide Zatti was a simple man of humble origin.  The Hospital was the place where he practised virtue day after day to a heroic degree. He went round the city and its suburbs on his bicycle.  He saw each of his patients as a "little Jesus" to be cared for with dedication and love. He prayed while cycling and the few hours that remained were devoted to study and spiritual reading. Even when he went to bed he was still always available for any calls that might come.

It has been said that his best medicine was himself: his joyful cheerful attitude, the jokes, and his affection for every one of his patients. He not only administered medicine, but helped his patients to see in their situation a sign of God's will, especially when death was near. He was not only a nurse, but an educator in the faith, in times of trial and sickness - a good Samaritan in the style of Don Bosco, a sign and bearer of God's love.

Pope Francis is a great devotee of Artemide Zatti.  His memory invites us to promote the vocation of the Salesian Brother, without which the Salesian Congregation would not be the one desired and founded by Don Bosco.

November 15: Blessed Maddalena Morano
Among those who contributed most to the human and Christian development of the poor in Sicily at the turn of the century, from the nineteenth to the twentieth, stands the figure of a Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, Sr. Maddalena Morano. Her secret was her great faith in God that enabled her to carry on a feverish activity of education and evangelization, combined with a plan of holiness that she wanted to be share with others at all costs.

She realized very well that the primary purpose of all educational work was to facilitate the meeting with the Lord on which the quality of life depends. She was concerned that her sisters cultivate the spirit of prayer in students. One of her pupils said of her, "when she prayed she seemed like an angel in prayer, and we were inspired to imitate her."

She was unhappy at the level of religious ignorance among the young girls and opened the first oratory in the area at St Mary of Help and another one later in the parish of St Cosimo. Cardinal Nava appointed her in charge of parish catechism in the diocese, a task she fulfilled for nine years, and which came to be referred to as “her work”.

We pray that, through the example and intercession of Blessed Morano, the members of the Salesian Family may grow in their desire to communicate the joy of having met the Lord.

Published 12/11/2013