Giuseppe Bernardi

After his ordination, Father Giuseppe Bernardi began his ministry as a parochial vicar in Aisone, then at the Cathedral of Cuneo. From 1928 to 1931, he assumed the direction of the professional orphanage of Cuneo, showing great solicitude toward the most destitute youth. In 1931, he was appointed pastor of the parish of San Lorenzo in Bersezio, located in the upper Stura Valley. On June 29, 1938, he was appointed pastor of the parish of Saint Bartholomew (San Bartolomeo) in Boves. In this community, he distinguished himself by his pastoral devotion, his profound spiritual fatherhood, and his constant attention toward the poor and the sick. From the beginning of the Second World War, he actively supported, with immense charity, the families of mobilized soldiers.

The fate of Father Giuseppe Bernardi changed after the armistice of September 8, 1943. As Northern Italy fell under German occupation, the first groups of Italian partisans organized in the mountains surrounding Boves under the command of Ignazio Vian. On Sunday, September 19, 1943, partisans captured two German soldiers from the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler division. In retaliation, SS Major Joachim Peiper arrived in Boves with his troops and threatened to destroy the entire town if the two hostages and the remains of a German soldier killed during a clash were not returned to him. In the absence of local civil authorities, Peiper summoned the parish priest, Father Giuseppe Bernardi, and a local entrepreneur, Antonio Vassallo, to serve as mediators. Father Giuseppe accepted this perilous mission to save his population. The two mediators went into the mountains, successfully negotiated with the partisans, and brought back the two German soldiers safe and sound, as well as the body of the deceased. However, betraying his promise to spare the town, Major Peiper immediately ordered the assault. Boves was set on fire (approximately 350 homes were destroyed) and more than twenty civilians were massacred. Father Giuseppe Bernardi and Antonio Vassallo were sequestered in a German armored vehicle, forced to witness the destruction of their town. From the armored vehicle, the priest continued to exercise his ministry by blessing the bodies of the victims and absolving the dying. They were finally executed by the SS and their bodies were burned to erase the traces of the crime. On the same day, his young curate, Father Mario Ghibaudo (aged 23 and ordained for only three months), was also murdered by a German soldier while he was helping orphans and the elderly to flee and administering the last rites to a wounded person.

The cause for the beatification of Father Giuseppe Bernardi and Father Mario Ghibaudo was officially opened in the Diocese of Cuneo on May 31, 2013. The diocesan phase concluded on June 5, 2014, and the dossier was transmitted to Rome. On April 9, 2022, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing their martyrdom in odium fidei (in hatred of the faith). The beatification ceremony was celebrated on October 16, 2022, at AVIS Square in Boves. It was presided over by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, representing Pope Francis. During the Angelus on the same day, Pope Francis greeted the new blesseds, emphasizing that "in extreme danger, they did not abandon the people entrusted to them, but assisted them even to the shedding of blood." Their mortal remains have rested together since April 26, 2016, in a common tomb within the parish church of Saint Bartholomew in Boves.

The sacrifice of Father Giuseppe Bernardi and Father Mario Ghibaudo has become a universal symbol of peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness. Refusing the logic of hatred, the community of Boves has undertaken a remarkable path of reconciliation. Notably, it founded the first "School of Peace" in Italy. A fraternal dialogue was also established between the parish of Boves and that of Schondorf am Ammersee in Bavaria (Germany), the municipality where the SS Major Joachim Peiper is buried. This spiritual rapprochement led to an official twinning between the two municipalities in 2021. In the church of Schondorf, an altar was erected in tribute to the two martyr priests of Boves. Furthermore, the "Vassallo-Ghibaudo-Bernardi International Prize" was created to reward and encourage initiatives promoting intergenerational dialogue and the common good.