Brother (October 9, 2022)
An exemplary Salesian brother dedicated to the sick
Saint Artémide Zatti was born on 12 October 1880 in Italy to Louis Zatti and Albina Vecchi. He was a Salesian Coadjutor Brother, a nurse, and an administrator of a pharmacy and hospital for the sick poor for 40 years in Viedma, Argentina. Not only for what he has done, but because of his “everyday” down-to-earth holiness, Artémide Zatti is our newest Saint!
He was born into a hard-working peasant family and began labor at age nine with a wealthy family in order to contribute to family finances. When Artémide was 17 years old, his family emigrated to Bahía Blanca, Argentina where they found steady work at a hotel and then in a brick factory. On Sundays, the Zattis faithfully participated in the Salesian parish.
Artémide was inspired by the life of Don Bosco and he grew into a profound relationship with God under the guidance of his parish priest and spiritual director, Fr. Carlo Cavalli, SDB. When he was 19, Artémide was accepted as a student for the priesthood.
His Salesian formation was interrupted when he contracted severe tuberculosis from taking care of a young priest who had the disease. After two years, he was sent to Viedma in hopes of being cured by its pure air in the high Andes. In Viedma, there was a hospital and pharmacy attached to the Salesian College run by Fr. Evaristo Garrone, a priest-physician well known for his empirical approach to medicine. When Artémide did not improve, Fr. Garrone encouraged him to pray to Mary Help of Christians. He did. He believed and he promised that if she would obtain a cure for him, he would serve the sick poor for the rest of his life.
When he was cured, he promptly continued his formation, now to become a Salesian Coadjutor Brother. He professed in 1908 and began his mission alongside Fr. Garrone. When Fr. Garrone died in 1911, Artémide was put in charge of the pharmacy and the hospital. He was a trained pharmacist, nurse, operating-room assistant as well as head of personnel and financial administrator. He followed Fr Garrone’s rule that “he who has little, pays little and the one who has nothing pays nothing.”
In his religious life with its periods of prayer and community life, he found the secret of balancing the demanding daily tasks of administration and nursing care inside and outside the hospital. He bicycled at all hours of the day and night, in any weather, to the hovels of the suburbs, and doing everything free of charge. In 1941, the hospital was demolished to make way for the bishop’s residence of the newly erected diocese. Artémide suffered intensely, but in a spirit of obedience, he accepted the decision and relocated to Sant’Isidro Agricultural School where he established a new thriving hospital.
In 1950, after falling off a ladder to fix a roof-top water tank, Artémide was forced to rest. The doctors subsequently diagnosed him with serious liver cancer. He died on 15 March 1951 and is buried in the
Salesians’ chapel at Viedma.
Artémide Zatti was known for his “Salesian joy,” a sign of his holiness for those around him. He was “not only provider of medicine, but was himself a medicine for others by his presence, his songs, his voice…”
Servant of God June 1, 1979 by Pope John Paul II
Venerable July 7, 1997 by Pope John Paul II
Blessed April 14, 2002 by Pope John Paul II
Saint October 9, 2022 by Pope Francis
Fr. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Provincial Superior of the Jesuits and the future Pope Francis, inaugurated Zatti’s beatification process on 14 April 1998 and closed it on 14 May 1998.
St. Artémide Zatti met Blessed Zeferino Namuncurá in Viedma. Despite their difference in age, the two had a warm relationship until Zeferino left for Italy in 1904 with Salesian Bishop John Cagliero.
Sources:
https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/2002/documents/ns_lit_doc_20020414_zatti_en.html
https://www.sdb.org/en/Rector_Major/Documents/General_Documentation/_
https://ius-sdb.com/vatican-artemide-zatti-proclaimed-saint/
More resources:
17-minute video on the life of St. Zatti
