Servant of God Zeno Saltini

Zeno Saltini (30 August 1900 – 15 January 1981) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Nomadelfia movement. He also had set up a war orphans refuge at the old Fossoli di Carpi concentration camp in the Emilia-Romagna region but this was closed in 1952 after ecclesial authorities ordered his departure and the camp's closure. The movement moved to Grosseto after a countess donated land to them to use and Saltini's communal group flourished and grew in numbers despite the Church's severe reservations regarding Saltini's work. This friction led in 1953 to him leaving the priesthood though he was later restored in 1962. Future outlooks on Nomadelfia mellowed over time and even earned papal support from Pope John Paul II towards the end of Saltini's life. His beatification process opened in 2009 after the Tuscan Episcopal Conference issued their assent to the cause's launch; a formal edict issued within the next fortnight launched the cause in Grosseto. Zeno Saltini was born in Fossoli in 1900 as the ninth of twelve children to the rich landowners Cesare Saltini and Filomena Rigi. His older sister was Maria Anna Saltini Testi, who founded a religious order and later was proclaimed as venerable. Three of his brothers would later enter the religious life. In 1914 he decided to cease his studies and refused to return to school because he believed that he had learnt subjects of little relevance to life. He therefore started to work on his parents' land and soon became acquainted with the miseries and the aspirations of fellow farmworkers and landowners. This proved to later be the basis for his life going forward. He later was conscripted into the national service in 1917 during World War I and was posted in Florence.