Mario Ciceri was born to poor farmers in northern Italy in 1900.
From childhood, he knew he had a vocation to the priesthood. With the permission of his devout parents, he left to study at a seminary high school while still in grade school. His achievements earned him scholarships, which allowed him to continue his studies despite his family’s limited means.
He was ordained a priest of the Milan archdiocese at age 23.
As a new priest, he was responsible for the parish’s catechism classes and helped with the Catholic Action youth group. He founded and directed a schola cantorum for young people.
Ciceri also helped to repair the buildings, acting as a carpenter, bricklayer, and electrical engineer. He used these skills to build a small reproduction of the Lourdes Grotto.
One young man at the parish wrote that the priest somehow found time to do these activities while also never neglecting his priestly ministry and was “always in church.”
The man said: “Yet if you go to the hospital, you can find him there at any time; if you go around the country, wherever there is a material or spiritual need, a pain to soothe, a need to help, you will find him there. Where you are sure not to find him is at his home, which really is not his home, but that of the young people.”
Ciceri cared for and encouraged the poor, the sick, former prisoners, and the young men who were soldiers fighting at the front during World War II.
In February 1945, while riding his bicycle home from a neighboring parish, where he had helped to hear confessions, he was hit by a buggy and fatally injured. He died two months later, on April 4, at the age of 44, after offering his suffering for an end to World War II and the safe return of soldiers.
Pope Francis recognized a miracle attributed to Ciceri’s intercession in November 2020.
The miracle concerned the healing of Raffaella Di Grigoli, a seven-year-old girl, in Como, northern Italy, who underwent a series of surgeries for intestinal problems in 1975 and was feared to be near death.
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The girl’s aunt organized a novena and told Ciceri’s sister about her niece’s plight. The sister gave the family a scarf that belonged to the priest. Raffaella’s mother took the scarf to the hospital and placed it several times on her daughter’s body.
Raffaella was discharged from the hospital on Feb. 4, 1976, and gave birth to a healthy girl in 2005.
The Catholic News Agency (CNA) Staff are a team of journalists dedicated to reporting news concerning the Catholic Church around the world. Our bureaus are located in Denver, Washington, and Rome. We have sister language agencies in Kenya, Germany, Peru, Brazil, and Italy. CNA is a service of EWTN News. You can contact us at news@catholicna.com with questions.