Marcello Candia

In 1949, Marcello Candia had a decisive encounter with Msgr. Aristide Pirovano, a missionary of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) and future bishop of Macapá, in the Brazilian Amazon. Deeply moved by the poverty of this region, Marcello conceived the project of selling the family business he had inherited to build a large, modern hospital for the poorest. However, in 1955, a terrible explosion destroyed his Milanese factory. Faithful to his duties as an employer, he chose to rebuild the company to guarantee the employment of his workers before realizing his missionary dream. After an initial exploratory trip to the Amazon in 1957, he definitively sold his company (the Società Industriale Candia-Solona) in 1964. He distributed a portion of the proceeds to his employees and dedicated the rest to financing his mission. On June 28, 1965, he settled permanently in Macapá as a lay missionary. Despite the initial suspicion of local authorities who suspected this European industrialist of seeking profit, Marcello Candia successfully completed the construction of the São Camilo e São Luís (Saint Camillus and Saint Louis) hospital, inaugurated in 1969. In 1975, he donated this modern facility to the Camillian fathers to ensure its longevity. His work did not stop there. He dedicated himself body and soul to leprosy (hanseniasis) patients in Marituba, in the state of Pará, where he founded the Dr. Marcello Candia Dermatological Center and the Abrigo João Paulo II. Over the course of his 18 years in Brazil, he initiated or financed 14 major works: hospitals, schools, social centers in the favelas, dispensaries, as well as two convents for contemplative Carmelites (in Macapá and Belo Horizonte) to support missionary action through continuous prayer. In 1982, feeling his strength declining, he created the Fondazione Dottor Marcello Candia in Milan to perpetuate his medical and educational assistance works in Brazil.

Marcello Candia embodies a lay holiness lived in self-emptying and direct service. He refused all paternalism, applying to the letter the advice given to him by Pope Paul VI: "If you build a hospital in Brazil, make it Brazilian... not only for the Brazilians, but with the Brazilians" (Faccia l'ospedale non solo per i brasiliani, ma con i brasiliani) and "set as your final goal to no longer be necessary" (Si proponga come obiettivo finale di non essere più necessario). In 1982, he was diagnosed with skin cancer (melanoma) which quickly spread to his lungs and liver. Despite intense physical suffering, he maintained a deep inner peace and absolute trust in Providence. He returned to Italy to receive care and passed away on August 31, 1983, at the San Pio X Clinic in Milan, at the age of 67. His funeral was celebrated by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini before a huge crowd in his parish of the Holy Guardian Angels (Santi Angeli Custodi) in Milan. On April 6, 2006, his mortal remains were transferred inside this same parish church.

The cause for the beatification of Marcello Candia was officially opened at the diocesan level in Milan on January 12, 1991, by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini. The diocesan inquiry concluded on February 8, 1994. The Positio super virtutibus, a document synthesizing the testimonies and evidence of his holy life, was submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican on July 15, 1998. On July 8, 2014, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic nature of his theological virtues (faith, hope, charity) and cardinal virtues, thereby conferring upon him the title of Venerable.

The spirituality of Marcello Candia rests on a radical humility and a faith lived out in daily life. He liked to repeat: "I am nothing. I am only a modest instrument of Providence" (Io non sono nulla. Sono solo un modesto strumento della Provvidenza). For him, service to the poor was not a simple social action, but a mystical encounter with the suffering Christ. He affirmed with strength: "It is not I who have given something, but they, the poor, who give to me" (Non sono io che ho dato qualcosa, ma loro, i poveri, che danno a me). His legacy remains alive through the Fondazione Dr. Marcello Candia, which continues to support financially and spiritually more than thirty institutions (schools, hospitals, leper colonies, reception centers) in the most disadvantaged regions of Brazil, particularly in the Amazon.