Beniamino Filon

It was during his years of study in Venice, around 1925-1926, that the first symptoms of a serious illness manifested: lethargic encephalitis. This cerebral condition caused him significant motor and speech difficulties, preventing him from regularly attending classes and participating fully in community life. Despite these physical sufferings and the intellectual limitations imposed by the illness, he was exempted from his final year of theology thanks to the support of his instructors. He was ordained a priest on July 21, 1929, in Venice by the Patriarch, the Venerable Pietro La Fontaine. He celebrated his first solemn mass on August 4, 1929, in his native village of Balduina.

Due to his precarious health, his superiors first sent him to Capodistria (now Koper, in Slovenia), where he spent fifteen months dedicated primarily to the ministry of confession. In 1931, he was transferred to the convent in Udine, Italy, which would become the main site of his apostolate for the next sixteen years. In 1932, doctors clarified the diagnosis of his illness: he was suffering from post-encephalitic parkinsonism.

Despite the progression of this debilitating disease, which caused him to tremble, walk with small steps, and speak with difficulty, Father Giacomo spent long hours every day in his confessional. His patience, gentleness, and profound spiritual wisdom attracted a vast crowd of penitents. He quickly became the preferred confessor for many faithful, as well as for priests and religious from throughout the Friuli region, who saw in him the "holy confessor of Udine."

Deeply devoted to the Virgin Mary, he participated in pilgrimages, notably to Loreto in 1941. In July 1948, sensing his end was approaching, he expressed the desire to go on a pilgrimage to Lourdes, confiding to his superior that he would not return. After an exhausting 35-hour train journey, he arrived in Lourdes on July 21, 1948. His health deteriorated immediately upon his arrival. Transported to the Asylum for the Sick, he received the anointing of the sick and passed away peacefully on the night of July 21, 1948, the anniversary of his priestly ordination. He is buried in the Langelle cemetery in Lourdes.

The reputation for holiness of Father Giacomo da Balduina, already very vivid during his lifetime in Udine, spread rapidly after his death, particularly around his tomb in Lourdes. Although he was completely unknown in the Marian city before his passing, his burial place became a site of constant pilgrimage, continually adorned with flowers and visited by faithful from all over Europe.

Faced with this popular devotion, the Archdiocese of Udine officially opened the diocesan informative process on his life and virtues on February 25, 1984. This diocesan inquiry concluded on November 18, 1989, after having collected numerous testimonies and documents. The acts of the inquiry were then transmitted to Rome, to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and the Positio was officially submitted in 2001.

On June 16, 2017, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing the heroic nature of the virtues of Father Giacomo da Balduina (Beniamino Filon), thereby conferring upon him the title of Venerable.

A diocesan inquiry into an alleged extraordinary healing, attributed to his intercession, was opened in September 2016 and concluded in July 2017. However, after examination by the medical experts of the Congregation in Rome, the opinion proved negative, which suspended this specific procedure. For Father Giacomo to be proclaimed Blessed, the official recognition of a miracle by the Holy See remains necessary.

The spirituality of the Venerable Giacomo da Balduina is deeply marked by the spirit of offering and reparation, typical of the Franciscan tradition. From his youth, he offered himself as a victim to God for the sanctification of priests, accepting his painful illness as the instrument chosen by Providence to accomplish this mission. He also performed a heroic act of charity by offering all his satisfactory works for the relief of the souls in Purgatory.

His legacy lies primarily in his ministry of reconciliation. In a body broken by parkinsonism, he manifested an unalterable docility, serenity, and kindness, welcoming every sinner with the mercy of Christ. His tomb at the Langelle cemetery in Lourdes remains to this day a silent testimony to his holiness, attracting numerous pilgrims who come to leave ex-votos and solicit his intercession.