Venerable Elia Dalla Costa

Elia Dalla Costa (14 May 1872 – 22 December 1961) was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate and cardinal who served as the Archbishop of Florence from 1931 until his death. Dalla Costa served as the Bishop of Padua from 1923 until 1931 when he was transferred to Florence; he was elevated to the cardinalate on 13 March 1933. Dalla Costa was a staunch anti-fascist and anti-communist and was known best for providing refuge for Jewish people during World War II and providing others with fake documentation to flee from persecution. Dalla Costa was noted for his deep faith and holiness and became a revered figure in Florence. He was considered "papabile" in the conclave in 1939 since he was considered a pastoral and non-political prelate with a strong sense of faith. In 2012, the organization Yad Vashem named him as a "Righteous Among the Nations" due to saving the lives of Jews during the Holocaust at great risk to himself. The cause for his beatification opened two decades after his death in 1981, and he was titled as a servant of God; he was named as venerable after Pope Francis confirmed his heroic virtue. Elia Dalla Costa was born in 1872 in Villaverla as the last of five children to Luigi Dalla Costa and Teresa Dal Balcon; the couple's first three children had all died as infants. Dalla Costa received his baptism as "Elia Angelo" on 23 June from Father Angelo Rossi, and his godparents were Francesco Muraro di Bressanvido and Eugenia Dalla Costa. His mother died in 1877 when Dalla Costa was five, which left him in the care of his father. Dalla Costa completed his high school education in 1886 and set out to commence his ecclesial studies after this. He attended the seminaries in Vicenza and Padua (graduating in literature from the college in Padua) before being ordained to the priesthood in 1895. He underwent further studies in 1895 and finished them later in 1897 before doing pastoral work in Vicenza, where he also taught.