Servant of God Giuseppe Girotti, OP, : A new martyr of the Order of Preachers
Today Vatican Information Services posted a new list of degrees from the Congregation of Causes of Saints. Among the Martyrs was listed:
Servant of God Giuseppe Girotti, professed priest of the Order of Preachers. Born in Alba, Italy, on 19 July 1905 and killed in hatred of the faith in Dachau, Germany, in 1945.
Giuseppe Girotti was born in Alba on July 19, 1905. He entered the Dominican seminary at age thirteen. In 1923 he made Profession and on August 3, 1930 he was ordained priest in Chieri.
He specialized in the famous "Ecole Biblique" of Jerusalem, and devoted himself to the teaching of Sacred Writing in the Dominican Theological Seminary of Turin (S. Maria delle Rose).
Respected for his wide culture, he loved to exercise the priestly ministry among the poor and humble, especially in the Hospice for the Old Poor close to his convent. But then came the years of suffering and trial, accepted in humility: private teaching, he was transferred to another community in the historic center of Turin. However, he continued his research in biblical, while intensified the exercise of its charitable activities.
"Everything I do is for charity," he said once, revealing his continued progress in virtue of charity.
When war broke out, he did his utmost to assist those in need and did not hesitate to especially particularly the persecuted Jews. For this he was arrested on 29 August 1944 and the stages of his tremendous Via Crucis were: Le Nuove (TO), San Vittore (MI), Bolzano and finally Dachau in Germany.
Among the hardships of the extermination camp, we noted the following: humility, simplicity, prayer, comfort of others, self-sacrifice and great unselfishness, led by inexha
ustible love, drawing strength and vigor from the Eucharist and from Scripture that Padre Girotti continued to deepen and to propose to his fellow prisoners.
His sacrifice was fulfilled on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945.
(from the Italian. Please excuse the poor translation.)