On the evening of 17 October in Mazzo di Valtellina, at the historic Lavizzari Palace, there was a memorial function for Don Quadrio. It began with a talk by Dr Lodovica Zanet, collaborator of the Postulation for the Causes of the Saints of the Salesian Family, who retraced some key elements of human and spiritual life of Don Quadrio, highlighting the inseparable link with the presence and action of the Holy Spirit. "Reviewing briefly the life of Fr Quadrio gives the feeling that his earthly parable was equivalent to a short arc, all stretched towards the Lord, full of zeal for Him. Even his falls spurred him on more and more to that great and all-embracing love that burned within him, and in comparison, to which every small imperfection seemed serious: when you love, nothing is small, nothing is indifferent" she narrated. Father Quadrio himself attributed to himself a particular bond with the Holy Spirit, experiencing a "mystical" moment himself, during the Pentecost period of his twenty-three years (1944). From then on, he would impose on himself a "new name", which would remain secret, but with which he would sign his spiritual Diaries: "Docibilis a Spiritu Sancto".

This was followed by the touching testimony from Maria Pia Gallo who described her experience of entrusting herself to the intercession of Fr Quadrio in a moment of serious illness from which she was healed, thanks to the united prayer of many people linked in particular to Turin’s ADMA.

The following day, Fr Carlo Braga was commemorated in Tirano. Fr Pierluigi Cameroni, Postulator General for the Causes of Saints of the Salesian Family, re-read the last letter of the Valtellinese missionary, written on the eve of his death on 2 January 1971. It was addressed to Sister Rita Mazza, FMA, which constitutes, in essence, a spiritual testament, synthesis of his entire family and vocational history, centered on pastoral charity, lived in the practice of the family spirit and in the exercise of a fatherhood that makes itself loved, and which the young Carlo had experienced in his encounter with Blessed Michael Rua.

In fact, when Carlo was a young boy attending the boarding school in Sondrio, he had the grace of meeting Don Rua on a visit to the city and of having the honour of being his little secretary for a day: "When I presented myself to receive orders, he smiled at me, put my right hand between his, and said to me: 'We will always be friends!'". It was a tradition of goodness made up of looks, smiles and hands that had passed from Don Bosco to young Michael Rua, and from them to little Carlo Braga. Most Rev. Luciano Cappelli, a Salesian, Bishop of Gizo, in the Solomon Islands, recalled the traits of paternity and closeness experienced during the years he lived as a young Salesian with Fr Braga in the Philippines, expressed through concrete gestures of love.

A solemn concelebrated Eucharist was held on Sunday 17 October in the parish church of Vervio, presided over by Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, who reread Fr Quadrio's testimony in the light of the Word of God, highlighting the trait of a true servant who knows how to give good things to his brothers and sisters in the conditions of his own life: as a consecrated man, as a priest, as a theologian, as a teacher. The Cardinal asked for the intercession of Fr Quadrio and Fr Braga, so that even today the Salesian Family will be able to lead the young generations in paths of faith and holiness.

• Title Title
• Title Title
• Title Title
• Title Title
• Title Title
• Title Title
• Title Title
• Title Title
• Title Title
• Title Title
•  

Tweet