Silvio Dissegna

Silvio's life changed at the beginning of 1978, when he was not yet eleven years old. He began to feel sharp and constant pain in his left leg. In May 1978, the medical diagnosis was made: he was suffering from bone cancer (osteosarcoma). Faced with his parents' distress, the young boy showed extraordinary spiritual maturity, consoling his father and mother. Despite the rapid progression of the disease, which soon forced him to use a wheelchair, Silvio received the sacrament of confirmation on May 21, 1978, in the parish church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Poirino. Between June 1978 and January 1979, he made seven stays at the Gustave Roussy Institute in Villejuif, near Paris, France, to receive specialized treatments, but the therapies remained ineffective. No longer able to go to school, he asked to receive communion at home every day. Silvio spent his days and nights praying, a missionary rosary constantly in his hands, offering his sufferings for the Pope, the Church, missionaries, the conversion of sinners, and peace. In 1979, the disease worsened further, depriving him of his sight and hearing. He passed away peacefully at his home in Poirino on September 24, 1979, at the age of 12, after receiving the anointing of the sick.

The reputation for holiness of young Silvio Dissegna spread rapidly after his death, touching many faithful in Italy and abroad. His tomb became a place of pilgrimage and prayer. On July 1, 1989, the association "Amici di Silvio" (Friends of Silvio) was officially created with the approval of Cardinal Giovanni Saldarini, Archbishop of Turin, to make his life and spirituality known. The diocesan phase of his cause for beatification and canonization was opened in the Archdiocese of Turin on February 8, 1995, and closed on October 26, 2001. The file was then transmitted to Rome, to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. On November 5, 2013, the theological commission of the Congregation issued a favorable opinion on the recognition of the heroic nature of his virtues.

On November 7, 2014, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing the heroic nature of the Christian virtues of Silvio Dissegna. By this act, the young boy was officially declared "venerable." On November 23, 2019, his mortal remains were transferred from the communal cemetery to the parish church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Poirino, where they now rest in the left nave, offering the faithful a place for reflection and prayer.

The spirituality of Silvio Dissegna is profoundly Eucharistic and Marian. Since his first communion, celebrated on September 7, 1975, in the family chapel dedicated to Saint Pius X, he maintained an intimate and daily relationship with Jesus. His love for the Virgin Mary was expressed through the incessant recitation of the rosary, which he continued to recite even at the height of his painful crises. Silvio's legacy lies in his ability to transform a terrible physical ordeal into an offering of love. His emblematic phrase, repeated throughout his illness, summarizes his spiritual life: "May every pain I feel be a gesture of love for you, O Jesus." He is today proposed as a model of faith, courage, and trusting abandonment for young people, showing that holiness is accessible from a very young age.