Giuseppe Di Donna

Attracted by the missionary ideal, Father Giuseppe Di Donna decided to leave for Africa. On June 4, 1926, after being received in a private audience by Pope Pius XI and celebrating a farewell mass at the church of San Tommaso in Formis, he left Rome with four Trinitarian confreres. They embarked from Marseille on June 21 and arrived in Miarinarivo, Madagascar, on September 17, 1926. For thirteen years, he deployed intense apostolic and social activity in Madagascar. Despite extreme poverty, illnesses (notably bubonic plague epidemics), and certain administrative hostilities, he distinguished himself by his constant joy and boundless charity. He had a church built there which, after being destroyed by fire, was rebuilt under his direction with great determination. In 1939, Pope Pius XII recalled him to Italy and appointed him Bishop of Andria on February 2, 1940. Deeply troubled by this appointment, which contradicted his vow not to seek a prelacy, he attempted several times to refuse it, but eventually accepted out of obedience. He received episcopal consecration in Rome on March 31, 1940, at the hands of Cardinal Raffaele Carlo Rossi, OCD, and made his solemn entry into the diocese of Andria on May 5, 1940. His episcopate, which lasted twelve years, was marked by the trials of the Second World War and the post-war period. Nicknamed the "bishop of charity," he spent himself without counting the cost to relieve the material and spiritual misery of his population. Faced with violent social conflicts between agricultural workers and large landowners, he intervened as a mediator of peace. He encouraged the development of Christian worker associations (ACLI), cooperatives, orphanages, and schools. On the doctrinal level, he published the pastoral letter L'Edificio sociale (The Social Edifice) and, on May 1, 1946, a dialogued catechism entitled Sulla vera natura del Comunismo (On the True Nature of Communism) to warn his faithful against materialistic ideologies. He also organized a Marian Congress in 1947 and a diocesan Synod in 1950.

Afflicted with lung cancer (pulmonary neoplasia), Bishop Giuseppe Di Donna lived his illness in abandonment and prayer. He died on January 2, 1952, in Andria, at the age of 50. His funeral, celebrated on January 5, gathered an immense crowd that already considered him a saint. Given the reputation of holiness surrounding him, the informative process for beatification was opened in the Diocese of Andria on November 30, 1956, and concluded on July 4, 1966. After examination by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the validity of the diocesan inquiry was decreed on October 18, 1991. The Positio was submitted in 1993.

On July 3, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing the heroic nature of his virtues, thus conferring upon him the title of Venerable. His remains rest in the Cathedral of Andria, where many faithful come to pray at his tomb. The cause is currently underway, awaiting the recognition of a miracle to pave the way for his beatification.

The spirituality of Bishop Giuseppe Di Donna is deeply Trinitarian, Eucharistic, and Marian. From his youth, he offered himself as a victim of expiation through what he called his "marriage to the Cross" (on March 26, 1926). His ministry, both in Madagascar and in Andria, stemmed from this intimate union with the suffering Christ, whom he strove to recognize and serve in the person of the poor and the marginalized. His legacy remains alive in Andria and in Madagascar, where the memory of his missionary zeal and his social action remains engraved. His letters written during his years of mission have been published in two volumes, and his life has inspired several works, including a local musical and theatrical creation.