Blessed Giuseppe Rossi

Giuseppe Rossi was born at Varallo Pombia near Novara in 1912 into a poor and religious family. He entered the seminary in 1925 and was ordained on 29 June 1937. The following year he became parish priest of Castiglione Ossola, a small mountain village, where he spent about six years, giving himself in particular to the formation of the young, to the spiritual direction of the women of Catholic Action and of the Saint Vincent de Paul conferences, and to the care of the poor and the sick. When the Second World War came, the Val d'Ossola became a battleground between partisans and Fascist formations. On 26 February 1945 the Black Brigade Ravenna clashed with partisans beside Castiglione, losing two dead and some twenty wounded, and reprisals followed at once: houses were burned and hostages taken, Don Giuseppe among them, though he was released the same day.

He had returned home and was at supper when the militia came back for him, took him outside the village to the Vallone dei Colombetti, made him dig his own grave with bare hands, beat him and killed him. He had taken no political side, and had tried to help anyone in difficulty.