The Saint of October 8: Giovanni Calabria, know his story

Tomorrow, Friday 8 October, the Church commemorates John Calabria.

It is 1900. On a foggy evening in November, Giovanni Calabria, a young Veronese student of theology, sees a pile of rags in a crevice of the door: he is a little gypsy forced to beg and carry a certain sum every day to escape being beaten. and abuses; not knowing where else to take refuge, he tries - as he can - to defend himself from the cold.

He is a desperate man like many others, one of those for whom there is no word for the future. Giovanni takes him to his home and entrusts him to his mother, who is used to sharing her son's generosity. That night, however, he was unable to sleep, and the idea was born to pray, but above all to fight to oppose injustices like this. It will do so for over 50 years, promoting assistance activities in 12 countries and 4 continents through the foundation of the Opera Don Calabria. Born on 8 October 1873 and ordained a priest in 1901, Giovanni Calabria died on 4 December 1954, at the age of 81.

Giovanni Calabria was born in Verona on 8 October 1873 and died in the same city on 4 December 1954: he was proclaimed a saint by Pope John Paul II on April 18, 1999, while the beatification took place on April 17, 1988.

Don Calabria's work was not intended to exclude any sector of activity where help was needed for the less fortunate. So he began by welcoming street children, orphans or with various problems, taking care of their education, teaching them a trade to prepare them for life. In the immediate post-war period, an activity aimed at the master's school also began, starting from the concept that in society there is also a need for educated people and professionals. In recent decades, the changed conditions of public education in Italy meant that the activity of the Opera don Calabria addressed the handicapped and the Third World, without excluding any other branch of activity where it was able to benefit .