Vatican - Decretal Letter of Artemide Zatti's Canonization

31 March 2023

(ANS – Vatican City) - On March 29, 2023, the Secretariat of State of the Holy See transmitted, through Msgr. Paolo Rizzi, to the Postulator General Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni the Decretal Letter concerning the Canonization of Blessed Artemide Zatti that took place on October 9, 2022. This is a document in which something of utmost importance and relevance in the life of the Church is established. The text of the Decretal Letter begins with the name of the Supreme Pontiff, followed by "ad perpetuam rei memoriam." It is signed at the foot by the Pontiff (Ego Franciscus Catholicae Ecclesiae Episcopus), the lead stamp and papal seal are affixed. The juridical-canonical purpose of this Letter is the written confirmation of the Canonization of Blessed Artemide Zatti. The text includes brief biographical notes on the new saint and a brief summary of the canonical process of the Cause. Translated into Latin by the appropriate office of the Secretariat of State, the text is published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, the official commentary of the Apostolic See.

The text recalls that "Blessed Artemis loved his sick with an evangelical spirit; he saw Jesus himself in them. In each of them, he visited Christ, cured Christ, fed Christ, clothed Christ, housed Christ, honored Christ. One day he said to the wardrobe attendant, 'A change of clothes for Our Lord...'. Zatti sought the best for his attendants: 'To Our Lord we must give the best.' A poor country child needed clothes for his first communion and Artemide asked: 'A little outfit for Our Lord.'"

Don Bosco had told the first Salesian missionaries who left for America, "Take special care of the sick, the children, the elderly, the poor, and you will earn God's blessing and the goodwill of men. He was an edifying witness of fidelity to the common life. It was he who rang the bell. It was he who preceded all the other confreres in community appointments. Faithful to the Salesian spirit and to the motto - 'work and temperance' - bequeathed by Don Bosco to his sons, he carried out prodigious activity with habitual readiness of mind, with a spirit of sacrifice especially during night service, with an absolute detachment from all personal satisfaction, never taking vacations or rest. As a good Salesian, he knew how to make cheerfulness a component of his holiness. He always appeared sympathetically smiling. He was, above all, a man of God. One of the hospital doctors said, 'When I saw Br. Zatti my incredulity wavered.' And another: 'I have believed in God ever since I met Br. Zatti.'"

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