Giuseppe Baldo: Priest, Founder, and Candidate for Sainthood

It was February 19, 1843, when Giuseppe Baldo was born in Puegnago. His parents were Angelo and Ippolita Casa. The following day, he was baptized at the parish church of San Michele. In December, on the 7th, 1858, he entered the seminary after attending the first three years of elementary school in Puegnago and the 4th and 5th years and the gymnasium in Salò. One year later, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, he received the clerical habit. On August 15, 1865, he was consecrated a priest in the Verona cathedral by Bishop Luigi di Canossa, and the following Sunday, at only 22 years old, he celebrated his First Solemn Mass at the parish church of Puegnago. This is the chronology of Giuseppe Baldo’s early life, which led to his beatification and veneration in 1989, after 11 years from the initiation of the Cause for beatification, a prelude to sainthood 86 years after his death on October 24, 1915. Many works were carried out by Blessed Giuseppe Baldo during his 73 years of life, 50 of which he dedicated to his apostolate. His most notable achievement is undoubtedly the founding, in 1894, of the congregation of the “Little Daughters of St. Joseph”: nuns involved in kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools, and missions in Africa, Latin America, Russia, and Calabria. His journey continued and still continues today, even after his death, through the work of his “Nuns” and through the miracles attributed to him, which brought him to the honor of the altars. In January 1987, at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City, in the presence of Pope John Paul II, the “decree on the heroicity of virtues” of Servant of God Don Giuseppe Baldo was read. The miraculous person involved in initiating the complex and arduous “process of beatification” was Luigi Verzini, a humble peasant from Ronco all’Adige, the town where Don Baldo was appointed parish priest in November 1877. Verzini, while working in his field tending a metal net, was seriously injured in one eye. The eye was completely emptied of its contents, and the poor man was urgently transported to Borgo Trento Hospital in Verona, where doctors, convinced that the unfortunate farmer was irreparably destined to lose his eye, performed only a simple dressing. Yet, his family members were not resigned and promptly turned to the memory of their old and beloved parish priest, Don Giuseppe. The health of their loved one depended on many things, notably the future of their poor family. A sincere prayer, made with faith, which the day after, when the doctors removed the bandages, showed, incredulously, that the injured eye had returned to perfect health as if nothing had happened. For a week, the people of Puegnago—and not only—gathered again around the relics of their Blessed fellow citizen, who arrived into town on Saturday evening at 6:30 PM, August 11, and stayed until the following Sunday, August 19. A week of celebrations, attended by the bishops of Verona, Carraro and Veggio, along with various clergy from the Vicariate of Garda: Desenzano, Salò, and Gavardo. Each day was dedicated to a specific theme, such as Family Day (August 13), Day of Associations and Movements (August 14), Feast of the Madonna Assumed and anniversary of the dedication (August 15), Anniversary of the First Mass (August 16), and Day of the Elderly (August 17). Throughout the period, the relics of Blessed Baldo remained exposed in the parish church of San Michele.