Blessed Clement Vismara

Blessed Father Clement Vismara (September 6, 1897 – June 15, 1988) was an Italian priest and missionary. He is venerated by the Roman Catholic Church. He spent 65 of his 91 years in forests of Burma assisting Akhà and Ikò tribal peoples, particularly children and widows. Clement Vismara was born in Agrate Brianza; his parents were Attilio Egidio Vismara (1865–1905), a saddler, and Stella Annunziata Porta (1872–1902), a seamstress. He was the fifth child after his brothers Egidio, Carlo, and Francesco, and his sister Maria. He prematurely lost his mother first, who died in childbirth when the sixth brother, Luigi, was born in 1902, and then lost his father in 1905. He was entrusted to the care of relatives, attended school, and then, in 1913, entered the Seminary of St. Peter Martyr (Seveso, Milan). On September 21, 1916, during World War I, he was called up and sent to the front as a private of the 80th Infantry Regiment Brigade Rome. He fought on Mount Maio and Adamello. He was honorably discharged on November 6, 1919, with three medals for bravery and the rank of sergeant major. After resuming his studies in Milan at the Lombard Seminary for Foreign Missions (which in 1926 became the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions) Clement was ordained on May 26, 1923. Immediately after his ordination he set out from Venice (August 2) and arrived at Toungoo, Burma, in late September to study English and local dialects. He moved to Kengtung State to the Kengtung mission in March 1924 and then left to found the new Mong Lin mission on October 27, 1924.