4 November 2001: John Paul II Proclaimed Fr. Luigi Tezza Blessed

Luigi TezzaOn 4 November 2001 Pope John Paul II proclaimed Fr. Luigi Tezza Blessed.

The Founder of the Congregation of the Daughters of St. Camillus together with the Blessed Giuseppina Vannini in 1892, Tezza was sent to Lima to reform the Camillian community in Peru at the age of fifty-nine.

He stayed there until his death, for twenty-three years, leaving an indelible sign behind him, and to such an extent as to be called ‘the saint of Lima’.

The following were the words that the Holy Father spoke during the homily for his beatification: ‘A splendid example of an existence entirely dedicated to the exercise of charity and of mercy towards those who suffer in body and in spirit. For them he founded the Institute of the Daughters of St. Camillus, whom he taught to practise absolute trust in the Lord. “The will of God. That is my only guide”, he exclaimed, “the only purpose of my breathing, to which I want to sacrifice everything”. In this trusting abandonment to the will of God, his model was the Virgin Mary, tenderly loved and beheld especially at the moment of the “fiat” and in silent presence at the foot of the Cross’.