Giuseppe Beschin

After his ordination, Father Ignace obtained a doctorate in moral theology at the Pontifical University of the Antonianum in Rome, as well as a doctorate in canon law at the Patriarchal Seminary of Venice. He taught in Lonigo and then at S. Michele in Isola. During the First World War (1916-1919), he served as a medical soldier on the Carso front. After the war, he became vice-postulator general in Rome, dedicating himself to the cause of Bernardino da Portogruaro. He assumed numerous duties: general visitor, director of the Third Order of Saint Francis, censor, consultor, and author of the Martyrologium Franciscanum. Elected provincial minister of the Venetian province of Saint Francis (1937-1943), he subsequently presided over the Antonianum and directed the college of penitentiaries of the Lateran. During the Second World War, he protected political refugees there. In 1946, summoned by Cardinal Nicola Canali to hand over these fugitives, he refused out of evangelical charity and resigned on May 7, 1946.

After his resignation, he returned to Veneto as a definitor and master of clerics, while continuing his work on the cause of Bernardino da Portogruaro. In 1948, he returned to Rome to revive this file. From 1950, serious heart problems weakened his health, but he continued to teach and hear confessions in Grottaferrata. In July 1952, after a final trip to Veneto for the first mass of two of his nephews, his condition deteriorated. On September 11, 1952, he was transferred to the Franciscan infirmary in Chiampo, where he passed away peacefully on October 29, 1952, surrounded by a solid reputation for holiness. His remains rest in the church of Santa Maria della Pieve in Chiampo.

The cognitive process regarding his reputation for holiness and the heroic nature of his virtues was opened in the Diocese of Vicenza on May 3, 1979, and concluded on June 3, 1981. On January 20, 2017, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing the heroic nature of his theological and cardinal virtues. This official promulgation took place on January 21, 2017, the date on which he was declared Venerable. To this day, no miracle has yet been officially recognized by the Holy See to pave the way for his beatification.

The life of Father Ignace Beschin bears witness to a "daily holiness" (santità feriale), lived in Franciscan simplicity, gentleness, and humility. Although an accomplished intellectual and a respected man of government, he always prioritized the direct service of souls as a confessor and a delicate spiritual director. His legacy also resides in his work as a historian and biographer for the Order of Friars Minor, as well as in his prophetic gesture of protecting refugees at the Lateran, a model of absolute pastoral charity.