Blessed Alfredo Cremonesi

Alfredo Cremonesi (15 May 1902 – 7 February 1953) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions. He studied in Crema and Milan before setting off from Genoa to Naples and then to the Burmese missions via boat. He pledged that he would never return to the Italian mainland and spent the remainder of his life working with the Burmese people in mountain villages despite the great difficulties he faced. Cremonesi was also a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II after the Japanese occupied the nation. The Burmese independence reached in 1948 prompted guerrilla conflict which caused great unrest and destruction to the point that Cremonesi and other missionaries were forced into exile so as to remain safe. But he reached out to the guerillas and received their permission to return to the village he worked in. It was also there in that village that government forces mistook him for a rebel - or a supporter of the rebels - and shot him dead alongside the village chief and two girls. The beatification process for the late priest opened in 2004 and he became titled as a Servant of God. Pope Francis approved his beatification and it took place in Crema on 19 October 2019. Alfredo Cremonesi was born on 15 May 1902 in Ripalta Guerina in Cremona as the first of seven children to the grocer Enrico Cremonesi and Maria Rosa Scartabellati. He received his baptism on 16 May in the local parish church from Angelo Bassi. One cousin was Amina Uselli and a paternal aunt was the nun Sister Gemma (16 July 1878−3 April 1958). Cremonesi received his Confirmation on 4 October 1908 from the Bishop of Crema Ernesto Fontana and then made his First Communion on 1 April 1909. His father was a devoted Christian who opposed Fascism and it was his mother who oversaw the religious education of the seven children. It was in his childhood at some stage that he read the journal of Thérèse of Lisieux and from that point fostered a deep devotion to her.