Fr. Anselmo belonged to the first generation of Betharramites who grew up at the beginning of the story of the Vice Province of Italy. Born in Lesmo, region of Milan, in 1924, he started his Betharramite adventure in 1937 in Colico where the small group of Betharramites had opened a school. He pronounced his first vows in Rome in 1942 and was ordained a priest in 1948.

The experience of Fr. Anselmo grew around two communities: Colico and Monteporzio. Invited in Colico after the priestly ordination in 1948, he remained there, the first time, until 1953. In fact, he came back two other times to Colico: from 1958 to 1962, and from  1967 to 1973. Whereas he stayed in Monteporzio from 1953 to 1958; from 1962 to 1967, and finally, from 1973 until the end of his life.

His family background led him to develop a great passion for woodwork to which he dedicated himself (as a “hobby”), by building even valuable pieces of furniture. It was for him too an occasion of “apostolate” with different persons, believers or not, who turned to him for different kinds of work.

He loved singing. We remember him in Monteporzio, then study house, in occasion of the feast of St Michael: he had to sing the words of the hymn “Ove nel bel ciel”… It was a question, if I dare say, of life or death!

Certainly, Fr. Anselmo was not an “easy” fellow. Sometimes touchy, he would look like as if he was against everyone and everything. But if you would come to him with simplicity he knew how to give the best of himself, building constructive relationships and opening his face with large smiles… And this is how we want to remember him: with a smile which, we are sure, will never be cancelled. Just as we are sure that Our Lady of Betharram, whom he deeply venerated and loved, welcomed him in the House of the Father, and the Son Jesus, reached him the little branch, sign of full and everlasting life which he hoped and which he can now enjoy to the full.

Graziano Sala,SCJ

Italian Superior provincial