Joseph Mazzanti was born in Imola, Bologna, (Italy) on June 3rd, 1879.
A priest, born, raised and died in his beloved Imola, he lived passionately what was ordinary in his life and who could still say a word to those who today seek the way that leads to peace of heart and holiness in daily life. The secret of his constant goodness towards all was his intimate and filial union with God.
He lived every problem and every day with the wonderful reality of the supernatural living in him. He knew how to see things and events in the light of faith, and this also inculcated him in his convincing spiritual discourses. Too short for us were his incomparable catechism lessons from which we always came out with our souls flooded with joy. - Meeting with Fr Giuseppe Mazzanti was like bathing in serenity and rest.
The strength that attracted to him was his great spirit of charity: a cordial and sympathetic charity that he gave with sincere and total understanding; an intelligent charity that knew how to see, even in the weeds and in the desert of a heart, the positive note, the smouldering wick; an apostolic charity that he knew how to infuse into that army of generous souls – the Little Sisters of St. Teresa – who, consecrated to God in the spirit of little Thérèse of Lisieux, found in him the inexhaustible counsellor, the generous father, the wise director of the Work he founded.
He died on December 22, 1954.
The Diocesan Inquiry on his «life, virtue and reputation for holiness» was opened on 3rd of June 2016 in the Imola diocese.
