Cenni Biografici
in lingua inglese
Saint Arcangelo Tadini
was born on 12 October 1846
in Verolanuova (Brescia), Italy.
At the age of 18 he entered the seminary in Brescia, but had an accident that left him
with a limp for the rest of his life.
He was ordained in 1870, but illness forced him
to spend his first year as a priest with his family.
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| Botticino
Sera - La filanda Tadini |
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From 1871 to 1873
he was a curate in Lodrino, a mountain village, and then at the Shrine of Santa Maria
della Noce near Brescia.
He was known for his
attentiveness to his people's needs. After flooding left many parishioners homeless, he
organized a soup-kitchen in the parish house that served 300 meals a day. In 1885 he was
transferred to Botticino Sera as curate and two years later was appointed parish priest
and dean of the same parish, where he spent the remaining 25 years of his life.
A zealous pastor of souls, he provided catechesis for every
age group, started a choir, organized various confraternities, remodeled the church and
cared for the liturgy. When he preached, people were amazed at the warmth and power that
his words instilled.
With the spread of the industrial revolution, he founded
the Workers' Mutual Aid Association, to help labourers suffering from illness, accidents,
disabilities or old age. He used his own inheritance to plan and build a spinning factory,
outfitting it with the latest equipment and later building a residence next to it for
working women. To educate young working women, he founded the Congregation of Worker
Sisters of the Holy House of Nazareth who went into the factories to work alongside the
other women, sharing their toil and tensions, while teaching them by their example. To the
sister and the young working women Fr Tadini held up the example of Jesus, who not only
sacrifice himself on the Cross, but spent the first 30 years of his life in Nazareth where
he was not ashamed to use a carpenter's tools or to have calloused hands and a brow bathed
in sweat.
He taught his parishioners that work is not curse, but the
way men and women are called to fulfil themselves as human beings and as Christians His
strength came from prayer: his parishioner used to see him stand for hours in front of the
Blessed Sacrament, despite his disability, absorbed in the contemplation of God.
Fr Arcangelo Tadini ended his earthly life on 20 May 1912. |
San Lorenzo Martire in Verolanuova