Tarcisio Rubin was born in Loreggia (Padova) on May 6, 1929. He became a Scalabrinian in 1946 and was ordained a priest in the cathedral a Piacenza on March 21, 1953.

He was immediately assigned to the missions of Switzerland where he worked from 1953 to 1957 in Bern and in Solothurn. He was recalled to Italy to do vocation promotion and to teach in the seminaries. But the stressing work as a vocation promoter and his poor health forced him to take several breaks. During one of these breaks one of his Superiors wrote: «During these years, in spite of your poor health, you have given all of yourself, pushing yourself even beyond the limit of prudence… You’ve done your work well … I appreciate you».

In addition to doing vocational work, he also found a way to obtain a licentiate in theology at the University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome and gave numerous conferences in various seminaries throughout Italy.

From 1969 to 1973 he returned to the missions in Germany. In April 1974, after spending time in prayer and reflection, he left for Argentina.

His missionary vision could thus open up to new and much wider horizons. His heart embraced the poorest and the loneliest migrants and he felt within himself Jesus’ own compassion: «Seeing the crowds he felt compassion, because they were tired and exhausted, as sheep without a shepherd» (Mt 9, 36).

Missionary to the Bolivians, he undertook long journeys in northern Argentina (Salta, Tucuman, Jujuy) and even in Bolivia. Urged on by his zeal, he ended up “lost” in the South Pole. He conducted retreats for the clergy of Mendoza and the bishops sought him out as the preacher for their annual spiritual exercises.

In asking to go to Argentina among those living in barracks, he had written: «I feel urgently the need to adapt a lifestyle as a source of prayer, in the silence of solitude, a hearth of an apostolic and Eucharistic religious community, a witness to manual labor, to poverty in food and housing».

His ascetic appearance will be long remembered: his long beard, his torn cassock, the poncho, the Bible and the breviary and nothing more with him; but assuredly the spiritual memory of those who have known him will hold on for much longer to his prophetic spirit and his Charism.

He died of a heart attack on October 3,1983 in the village of Alto Calilegua at 3000 m on the Andes, close to Jujuy in the north of Argentina.

He had gone there, in spite of being sick, to take the place of a missionary on vacation. Death caught him as he was praying during the night before his Lord in the little village church.

In 2008, on the 25^th anniversary of Fr. Tarcisio Rubin’s death, the South American Scalabrinian Province of St. Joseph, in agreement with the Bishop of the diocese of Jujuy, began gathering information and testimonies on the life and holiness of Fr. Tarcisio, as missionary in Argentina and in Bolivia.

The actor of the process

Provincial Administration

• Avda. Independencia, 20 – 1099
• Buenos Aires (Argentina)
• scalaba@scalabrinianos.org.ar

Postulators

• Fr. Fabio Baggio, cs

The Cause of Beatification was introduced in 2008 on the occasion of the 25^th anniversary of his death.

The cause was later interrupted due to the death of the Bishop, Msgr. Marcelo Palentini, but it was opened again on June 8, 2015 with a celebration presided by Bishop César Daniel Fernández in the cathedral of the diocese of Jujuy, Argentina.

On 31 October 2018 Monsignor Cesar Daniel Fernandez, bishop of Jujuy, celebrated the closing of the diocesan phase of the beatification process of the servant of God in the cathedral church.

On 14 January 2019 the documents of the diocesan process were handed over to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome.

Flood, Jesus, my soul with your spirit and your life.

Penetrate all my being and take possession of it,

so as to make of my life an irradiation of yours.

Rest on my heart in such an intimate union

that the souls who come contact with mine,

may feel in me your presence

and, while looking at me, they may ignore my existence

and think only of you.

Let me delight in you with my lamp

so as to scatter the shadows on the path of other souls.

Allow me to preach your name with my life,

with the evident force of the love my heart feels for you.

Amen