Blessed Luigi Lenzini

Luigi Lenzini was born at Fiumalbo near Modena in 1881 into a well-off and deeply Christian family. He entered the seminary of his home town in 1897, moved to Modena in 1901 and was ordained on 19 March 1904. After various assignments he was allowed in 1938 to spend time in Rome with the Minor Clerks Regular, but his bishop recalled him to serve as chaplain of the sanatorium at Gaiato, and in 1941 made him parish priest of Crocette di Pavullo, a parish of little more than six hundred people scattered over a wide area. He carried out that ministry in the middle of the war, in a district where partisan formations of strong communist inspiration operated and where twenty-two priests were killed between 1945 and 1946.

He assisted anyone who needed him, whatever their politics. On the night of 20 July 1945 he was roused on the pretext of a dying man he had in fact visited the evening before; realising the trap, he rang the church bells, and his captors fired on the square to frighten off help. He was dragged half-dressed into the fields and killed.