"The canonization of Artemide Zatti is a gift of grace," recalls Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, Postulator General for the Causes of the Saints of the Salesian Family. "The witness of holiness that the Lord gives us through this brother, who lived his life in the spirit of family typical of the Salesian charism, embodying fraternity toward his confreres and the Salesian community, and closeness toward the poor and the sick and anyone he encountered on his path, is an event of blessing to be welcomed and made to bear fruit. St. Artemide Zatti turns out to be a model, intercessor and companion of Christian life, close to each one. Indeed, his adventure presents him to us as a person who experienced the daily toil of existence with its successes and failures. It is enough to recall the detachment from his native country to emigrate to Argentina; the disease of tuberculosis that burst like a hurricane into his young existence, shattering every dream and every prospect for the future; seeing the demolition of the hospital that he had built with so many sacrifices and had become a sanctuary of God's merciful love. But Zatti always found in the Lord the strength to get back up and continue on the path."
The sympathetic figure of Artemide Zatti is an invitation to propose to young people the fascination of consecrated life, the radicality of following Christ obedient, poor and chaste, the primacy of God and the Spirit, fraternal life in community, spending oneself totally for the mission. The vocation of the Salesian coadjutor is part of the physiognomy that Don Bosco wanted to give to the Salesian Congregation. It blossoms most easily where apostolic lay vocations are promoted among young people and they are offered a joyful and enthusiastic witness of religious consecration, like that of Artemide Zatti. The memory goes to the words spoken by Pope Francis during his audience to the Salesian Family the day before his canonization: "The fourth and final trait I would like to highlight: he is an intercessor for vocations. And I have experienced this. I will tell you about a personal experience. When I was Provincial of the Jesuits of Argentina, I learned about Artemide Zatti, read his biography and entrusted to him the request to the Lord for holy vocations to the lay consecrated life for the Society of Jesus. Since we began to pray through his intercession, the number of young coadjutors increased significantly; and they were persevering and very committed. And so I bore witness to this grace that we received."
Artemide Zatti: Seventy-one years of life before God and before men; a life delivered with joy and fidelity to the end, embodied in daily life, in the hospital wards, on a bicycle through the streets of Viedma, in the travails of concrete life to meet demands and needs of all kinds, living everyday things in a spirit of service, with love and without fuss, without claiming anything, with the joy of giving, enthusiastically embracing the vocation of Salesian coadjutor and becoming a shining reflection of the Lord.
