Giuseppe Marchetti was born in Lombrici di Camaiore, Lucca (Italy) on October 3, 1869. He attended the diocesan seminary, where he distinguished himself in his studies. He was ordained a priest in 1892 and on April 3 of the same year he was appointed pastor of Compignano.

Having heard a conference by Bishop John Baptist Scalabrini on the Italian emigration in America, the young priest placed himself at his disposal.

His first trip to Brazil was on October 15, 1894 and he took a second one on the following year.

What happened during his second voyage helped him plan definitively his future as a Scalabrinian Missionary. A young mother had died aboard the ship, leaving an orphaned baby daughter and a distraught husband. This event inspired Fr. Giuseppe to begin in São Paulo, Brazil, an Institute for the protection of abandoned children (today’s Christopher Columbus orphanage).

To make this project possible, the young missionary engaged in an amazing amount of work, facing all kinds of harsh sacrifices, moved by an extraordinary zeal and by a sincere desire to sanctify himself. Urged on by evangelical charity, he even decided to vow never to waste a quarter of an hour. Father Marchetti died the death of a saint in São Paulo on December 14, 1896 at the very young age of 27, afflicted by the typhoid fever, which he had contracted while assisting the sick.

He was the main right-hand man of Blessed John Baptist Scalabrini in instituting the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles.

His sister Assunta and a small group of young women from his own hometown were among the first members of the new Institute. They received the veil in Piacenza in the Episcopal palace and together with them Fr. Marchetti made his own religious profession in the hands of Bishop Scalabrini.

The Sisters left almost immediately for Brazil and their first task was to firm up the charitable initiatives begun in São Paulo by Fr. Giuseppe.

• Gabriele Bentoglio, Di porta in porta. Il venerabile Giuseppe Marchetti, un santo patrono per i minori migranti

Actor of the Cause of Beatification

Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Charles – Scalabrinians

In Brazil

• Rua Huet Bacelar 657 – c.p. 42450 – 04299-970 São Paulo, SP, Brazil
• Ipiranga – 0427-000 – São Paulo, SP, Brazil
• Tel. (011) 20.63.21.04 – (011) 20.63.81.71
• Fax (011) 22.74.29.30

In Italy

• Via Calandrelli 42
• 00153 Roma
• Tel. 06.58.33.11.35 – Fax 06.580.38.08

Postulators

• Fr. Gabriele Bentoglio, postulator
• Sr. Leocadia Mezzomo, mscs, vice-postulator

On June 24, 1996, the Centennial of Fr. Giuseppe Marchetti’s death, the Superior General of the Scalabrinian Missionary Fathers, Fr. Luigi Favero, and the Superior General of the Scalabrinian Missionary Sisters, Mother Lice Maria Signor, communicated to the membership of their respective institutes the intention of introducing the Cause of Beatification of Fr. Giuseppe.

• October 1996: Fr. Ennio Guglielmo Bellinato, C.S. is appointed postulator of the cause.
• February 2, 1997: Sr. Blandina Felippelli, M.S.C.S. is appointed vice- postulator.

The Archdiocesan Phase of the Process

• July 15, 1997: a package, sealed and signed by the Archbishop of São Paulo, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, containing numerous documents gathered in view of the process of beatification, is sent to the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints in Rome to obtain the Nihil obstat for the beginning of the archdiocesan phase of the process.
• December 7, 1999: the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints authorizes the beginning of the archdiocesan phase of the process of beatification.
• May 5, 2000: opening of the process of beatification in São Paulo. Fr. Giuseppe Marchetti is accorded the title of Servant of God.
• November 28, 2001: closing of the process. All the acts and the conclusions of the process are sent immediately to the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints in Rome.

The Roman Phase of the Process of Beatification

• April 25, 2002: Fr. Ennio Guglielmo Bellinato is appointed postulator.
• May 10, 2002: Fr. Sisto Caccia is appointed vice–postulator.
• June 6, 2002: the postulator asks the Congregation of the Causes for the Saints that also the Portuguese language be accepted as one of the official languages for the handling of the process. The request is granted.
• February 21, 2003: the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints issues the Decretum de Validitate Processus (the decree on the validity of the process) declaring valid the São Paulo archdiocesan process. The postulator begins the long and arduous task of preparing the Positio.
• The result are 2 volumes of over 1000 pages each: the first volume holds all the historical and geographical data pertaining to the life and the work of Fr. Marchetti; the second volume deals with the virtues practiced in a heroic manner by Fr. Marchetti.
• January 22, 2008: five out of the six historical experts of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints gave a positive judgment over the content of the Positio. The doubts expressed by the remaining expert are clarified by the postulator.

Currently

• On October 13, 2015, Special Congress of the Congregation of the Causes of the Saints met in order to discuss the heroic nature of the virtues of the Servant of God Fr. Giuseppe Marchetti. Together with the Promoter of the Faith, six of the eight prescribed Consultors were present at the session. The absent Consultors had sent in earlier their written vote.
• At the conclusion of the debate, the Congress reached a unanimous conclusion on the necessity that the postulation provide an explanation for eventual problems that could be an obstacle to the veneration of the Servant of God, in addition to the normal missionary activity carried out by the Scalabrinian Fathers in Fr. Marchetti’s time, in order to verify the extraordinary character of his work.
• On January 21, 2016, having studied the postulation’s responses, the Consultors who had expressed the most important concerns, have thus given their updated opinion:
• Vote II was modified from suspensive to affirmative;
• Vote III was modified from affirmative ad mentem to affirmative.

Therefore the final tally of the theological Congress is: nine (out of nine) affirmative votes.

• July 8, 2016: Pope Francis received in private audience Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints. The Pope authorized the congregation to promulgate the decree on the heroic virtues of Servant of God (on which the cardinals and bishops of the Congregation had already given a positive vote on July 5).

The next step is the recognition of a miracle unequivocally attributable to the intercession of the Servant of God Fr. Giuseppe Marchetti.

Oh Lord, we praise You and thank You for having called Fr. Giuseppe Marchetti to be an apostle to the migrants and the father to the orphans.

Responding courageously to Your call, with generosity and apostolic zeal he consecrated himself with the vows of charity and of making himself a victim for his neighbor, in imitation of Your love, making good on his participation in the Scalabrinian Charism.

Oh Lord, for Your glory and for the good of the Church, grant us the grace to imitate him in his generous availability and in his total self-giving in the service to the poorest and neediest migrants.

We ask you to glorify on earth Fr. Giuseppe Marchetti, a martyr of apostolic labors, and grant us the grace which we humbly implore through his intercession.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.