Sante Spessotto

Life

Sante Spessotto was born on 28 January 1923 in Treviso to the peasants Vittorio Spessotto and Josefina Zamuner. He received his baptism on the following 30 January.

His paternal aunt Maria was in the process of becoming a nun but was forced to withdraw from the novitiate due to a bone disease. She helped care for her nephews and taught them catechism while aiding them with housework; she also told them stories of saints. Spessotto received his Confirmation in 1932 while in 1933 felt a firm call to the priesthood and so insisted to his father that he start his education in preparation for that.

Spessotto travelled to the convent of the Order of Friars Minor in Motta di Livenza and asked a friar how much it would take for him to enter to which the friar responded the hopeful would need to have a clear vocation and the will to serve God. Spessotto demanded his father relent to his request to which he did and he left for his studies on 3 September 1935 for Lonigo. He took clothes and savings that his aunt packed for him while at the train station he said to his father: "Now I call you father but one day you'll call me father".

On 16 September 1939 he commenced his novitiate and received the Franciscan habit as well as his religious name of "Cosma" around that same time. This occurred in Vicenza in a secluded convent on a hilltop while those at that convent tried to live according to the rule of Saint Francis of Assisi and the motto of Saint Leonard of Port Maurice. He made the first profession of his vows on 17 September 1940. He spent 1940 learning humanities in the convent of San Antonio de Gemoa in Udine while World War II prompted the transfer of the convent's students to the convent of San Francesco in Padua.

His final months of philosophical studies were located in an area where aerial bombings during the conflict became a high risk – at San Pancrazio Barbarano – and students were forced to take refuge elsewhere there when there were 1943 bombings near the convent. His theological studies were at San Vito al Tagliamento where he underwent an operation for an ulcer. The war made anaesthesia impossible so he was forced to endure the pain – he asked a nun for a Crucifix and that she squeeze his hand during the operation which turned out to be successful.

Spessotto made his solemn profession on 19 March 1944 and was ordained to the priesthood on 27 June 1948. After he was ordained he requested to go to the missions in China but his mother forbade it due to the volatile tensions with the Communists who had assumed power in 1949. He also wanted to go to Africa but this too never materialized.

Three priests – which included Spessotto – were set to go as missionaries to El Salvador and left a port of Genoa on 9 March 1950 and set sail for Central America; the group arrived on 4 April 1950.

He did not speak the Spanish tongue upon his arrival to El Salvador and so had to learn the language in order to speak and connect with the locals. His entrance into his first parish on 8 October 1953 was recalled as the priest being on a Vespa and being covered in dust to unpaved roads and he spent his first week visiting home after home in order to meet the locals. Spessotto aimed to connect to the local communities while in El Salvador and worked to rebuild a church that an earthquake had leveled in the 1930s. He learned on one occasion that there were hundreds of couples living together but were not married and in response he organized mass weddings where he married several couples at once. On another occasion guerillas took control of a church and took several priests hostage which ended when Spessotto negotiated their release. He also raised funds for the construction of a school and health clinics.

Spessotto also helped in the construction of a modern and functional church and construction for that church commenced on 2 June 1960.

Spessotto also denounced abuses on the part of the junta in El Salvador and this caused him to grow all the more vocal in his denunciations after the latter group had assassinated the Jesuit priest Rutilio Grande. Yet this was not without complications for he had received death threats from the junta due to his strong denunciations and opposition to the El Salvadorian forces. He aided the ill of his parish while aiding the poor of the area.

In May 1980 he was admitted to hospital due to liver complications but was instead diagnosed with leukaemia.

On 14 June 1980 he was killed at point-blank range around 7:00pm in his parish of San Juan Nonualco at the altar prior to the celebration of an evening Mass as he prepared for it; he forgave his executioners as he was gunned down. He had celebrated Mass earlier that afternoon for a slain student. His final words – according to Father Filiberto del Bosco – were "pardon ... pardon" as the priest gave him the Last Rites.

Beatification process

The beatification process commenced in Zacatecoluca with the declaration of "nihil obstat" ('nothing against') – on 17 July 1999 – in which Spessotto was titled as a Servant of God (the first official stage in the sainthood proceedings) and official approval to the commencement of the cause had been granted. The diocesan process opened on 14 June 2000 and closed on 14 June 2001 – marking the date of the late priest's death.

The process was validated in Rome on 4 April 2003 in which the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved the process.

The current postulator that is assigned to the cause is Giovangiuseppe Califano.