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THE MAN |
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Giuseppe Melchiorie Sarto was born at Riese, Italy on June 2, 1835. The son of a
cobbler/church janitor/postman Giovanni Battista Sarto and Margherita Sanson,
"Beppi" was the oldest of their 10 children. A bright, pious lad, Giuseppe
studied under his pastor, then at a nearby secondary school and finally at the seminary in
Padua. Ordained in 1858, Sarto worked hard and well as parish priest. In 1884 he became
bishop of Mantua and did so much for that rundown diocese that Leo XIII made him a
cardinal and moved him to Venice. Both as bishop of Mantua and patriarch of Venice, Sarto
proved to be a zealous pastor and highly capable administrator.
The very secret of Giuseppe Sarto's blessed success was that he himself lived what he
taught and preached. He was good-natured and straight-forward, easy-going yet incredibly
active, devoted to the poor and extremely generous, but living himself as a poor man,
paternal without condescension, witty but dignified, unassuming yet firm, a man of
unfeigned simplicity but adamant in the defense of Catholic principles and always a pastor
of souls, always a saint. A priest who sought the lowly things of life and whom God raised
and exalted. |
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