Giuseppe Marchetti

The turning point of his life occurred on April 25, 1892, when he attended a lecture in Lucca by Bishop Giovanni Battista Scalabrini of Piacenza, a great apostle to migrants. Deeply moved by the spiritual and material distress of Italian emigrants, the young priest decided to place himself at the disposal of Bishop Scalabrini. In 1894, while accompanying a group of his parishioners to the port of Genoa, he witnessed firsthand the abuses and exploitation suffered by emigrants. He decided not to return to Lucca, but to go to Piacenza to offer himself as a ship's chaplain (cappellano di bordo) on transatlantic vessels. With the blessing of Pope Leo XIII and the authorization of his archbishop, he committed to sharing the lives of migrants during ocean crossings to Brazil, refusing any salary and living under a vow of poverty. He made his first voyage on October 15, 1894. It was during his second voyage, in 1895, that a tragic event definitively shaped his mission. A young mother died on board the ship, leaving behind an orphaned infant and a desperate husband. Taking the child into his arms, Father Marchetti felt a pressing call from Providence to establish a work for the abandoned and orphaned children of Italian emigrants in Brazil. Upon arriving in São Paulo, he founded the Christopher Columbus Orphanage (Orfanotrofio Cristoforo Colombo) in the Ipiranga district. To ensure the operation and sustainability of this orphanage, Father Marchetti sought the help of his sister, Assunta Marchetti. On October 25, 1895, with the collaboration of Bishop Scalabrini, they founded the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Saint Charles Borromeo (Scalabrinian Sisters) in Piacenza. His sister Assunta, their mother Carolina Ghilarducci, and two other young women from their village were the first to take the habit. Father Marchetti himself made his religious profession within the male branch of the Missionaries of Saint Charles. Returning to Brazil with the first sisters, he spent himself tirelessly to consolidate the orphanage, traveling incessantly on horseback through the coffee plantations (fazendas) to visit Italian workers, collect funds, and rescue children in distress.

Father Giuseppe Marchetti led a life of heroic spiritual intensity and charity. Driven by the desire to sanctify himself through his ministry, he went so far as to make a vow never to waste a single quarter-hour of his time. At the end of 1896, while assisting the sick during an epidemic in Jaú, he contracted typhus. Exhausted by the privations and fatigues of his apostolate, he died in the odor of sanctity in São Paulo on December 14, 1896, at the age of only 27. His premature death stirred deep emotion among the emigrants and orphans, who already considered him a saint.

The cause for the beatification of Father Giuseppe Marchetti was officially introduced in 1996, on the occasion of the centenary of his death. The diocesan inquiry into his reputation for holiness and the heroic nature of his virtues took place within the Archdiocese of São Paulo from May 5, 2000, to November 28, 2002. The legal validity of this inquiry was recognized by a decree from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints on February 21, 2003. On July 8, 2016, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic nature of his virtues, thereby conferring upon him the title of Venerable. For his beatification to be pronounced, the official recognition of a miracle attributed to his intercession is required.

The spirituality of the Venerable Giuseppe Marchetti is deeply Eucharistic and Marian, centered on identification with the suffering Christ through the figure of the migrant and the orphan. His love for the poor was translated into a total gift of self, even to the sacrifice of his own life. Bishop Scalabrini would say of him: "He lived an irreproachable life as a son of God among the most needy emigrants and was a messenger of the Word. His life was not in vain: he lost it in sacrifice and in the service of Jesus Christ identified in the emigrant." His legacy endures today through the work of the Missionary Sisters of Saint Charles Borromeo (Scalabrinians), who continue their mission of spiritual and material assistance to migrants and refugees throughout the world. The Christopher Columbus Orphanage of São Paulo (now managed by the Instituto Cristóvão Colombo) remains the historical symbol of his pastoral charity toward abandoned children.