Giacomo Abbondo

In 1757, following the death of the parish priest Father Giovanni Bartolomeo Naya, the heads of families of Tronzano elected Father Giacomo Abbondo as the new provost of the parish of Saints Peter and Paul, in accordance with a local right of election dating back to 1435. He made his solemn entry into his native parish on July 3, 1757.

Father Abbondo found a community deeply marked by the Jansenist rigorism of his predecessor. He immediately set out to refocus the faith of his parishioners on the goodness and mercy of God, the beauty of the sacraments, and the assiduous reading of the Divine Word. His ministry unfolded through several major axes:

- Catechesis and teaching: He reorganized the Company of Christian Doctrine according to the statutes of Saint Charles Borromeo. Every Sunday afternoon, he provided systematic catechesis open to all. In winter, when field work slowed down, he would travel on horseback, wrapped in a large cloak, to the hamlets and isolated farms (cascine) to teach the catechism to children busy tending livestock. - Sacraments and devotion: Opposing the rigorism of the time, he encouraged frequent communion and admitted children to their first communion from the age of ten. He spent long hours in the confessional and regularly brought communion to the sick and the elderly. - Charity and mediation: Through the Congregation of Charity, he provided material assistance to the most destitute. He also distinguished himself as a respected mediator of peace between civil and religious authorities, as well as between the various local confraternities. - Liturgy and vocations: He composed specific prayers for the people, a rite of blessing for the dying, and organized parish spiritual exercises that fostered the emergence of numerous priestly vocations.

Father Giacomo Abbondo died on February 9, 1788, in Tronzano Vercellese. The local population immediately mourned him as a father and a saint. The heads of families drafted a unanimous public eulogy praising his immortal memory, his profound doctrine, his prudence, and his tireless pastoral zeal.

His reputation for holiness was maintained and grew over the decades. Between 1841 and 1884, more than seventy ex-votos were placed on his tomb in recognition of graces obtained through his intercession, and pilgrimages multiplied.

The cause for beatification officially opened in the Diocese of Vercelli in the 1920s. On March 13, 1922, his mortal remains were transferred from the communal cemetery to a chapel in the parish church of Tronzano. The diocesan informative process began on January 22, 1923. After a long interruption, the cause (which had become historical) was relaunched in the 1980s. The decree of validity for the diocesan inquiry was signed on November 21, 2003. On May 9, 2014, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing his heroic virtues, granting him the title of Venerable.

To pave the way for his beatification, the postulation presented for examination by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints a healing that occurred in 1907.

The miracle concerns Giovanni Viola, a 14-year-old adolescent born in Tronzano. On September 20, 1907, while unloading hay, the young man accidentally fell onto the prongs of a pitchfork (bidente) that had slipped from his hands. The prongs pierced the tissues of the perineum and exited through the right obturator foramen of the pelvis. Thanks to fervent prayers addressed to the intercession of Father Giacomo Abbondo, the young man recovered in a rapid, complete, and lasting manner, without any complications or sequelae, a fact scientifically inexplicable in the pre-antibiotic era.

The diocesan inquiry into this miracle was validated on December 5, 2008. The Medical Board of the Congregation approved the scientifically inexplicable nature of the healing on June 26, 2014, followed by the theological consultors on November 20, 2014. On May 5, 2015, Pope Francis signed the decree officially recognizing this miracle.

The beatification ceremony was celebrated on June 11, 2016, in the Cathedral of Vercelli (Cattedrale di Sant'Eusebio) by Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, representing Pope Francis. His liturgical feast is set for February 9, the day of his birth into Heaven.

The spirituality of Father Giacomo Abbondo is that of a pastor entirely given to his flock, embodying the evangelical figure of the good shepherd in the simplicity and humility of the Piedmontese countryside. Asked one day about the material value of the parish benefice assigned to him, he replied with this formula which summarizes his high awareness of priestly responsibility: "può valere il Paradiso o l'Inferno" (It can be worth Paradise or Hell). His legacy remains particularly alive in Tronzano Vercellese, of which he is the patron saint. The primary school of the municipality today bears his name (Scuole Elementari Don Giacomo Abbondo). His relics, exhumed during a canonical recognition on November 5, 2015, now rest under the altar of the parish church of Saints Peter and Paul in Tronzano, where they continue to be venerated by the faithful.