On January 8 and January 15, the Salesian Family will celebrate the memorials of two recently beatified Salesians of Don Bosco. One was a martyr who suffered for the faith, specifically for working on behalf of vocations to the priesthood and religious life behind the Iron Curtain; the other was a martyr of charity and obedience.
On Fr. Titus Zeman, beatified in 2017, see https://sdbnews.blogspot.com/2017/10/salesian-martyr-fr-titus-zeman-beatified.html. Photo at right.
Blessed Louis Variara (1875-1923) was beatified in 2002 by St. John Paul II.
Adapted
from www.sdb.org
Early years
Louis
Variara was born in Viarigi (Asti), Italy, on January 15, 1875, to a devout
Catholic family. His father Peter had heard Don Bosco in 1856, when he came to
the village to preach a mission. Four months before the saint’s death, Peter
decided to take Louis to Valdocco to continue his studies. What Louis came
to know of Don Bosco was sufficient to leave its mark on him for life. When he
finished high school, he asked to become a Salesian and entered the novitiate
on August 17, 1891.
Bro.
Variara did his studies in philosophy at Valsalice, where he came to know
Andrew Beltrami. He was impressed by the joy with which Beltrami underwent the
sufferings of his illness. In 1894 Fr. Michael Unia (1849-1895), the famous
missionary to the lepers in Agua de Dios, Colombia, visited Valsalice to choose
a cleric who would look after young lepers.
The missionary at Agua de Dios
Fixing
his gaze on Bro. Variara, among the 188 others who had the same
intention, he said: “This one is mine.” Bro. Louis arrived in Agua de Dios
on August 6, 1894. The mission numbered 2,000 people, of whom 800 were lepers.
As
soon as he arrived, he became the life and soul of all who lived there, especially
the children. He organized a band and brightened up peoples’ lives with
unexpected festivity. In 1895 Fr. Unia died, leaving and Bro. Louis and Fr.
Raphael Crippa (†1928) to carry on the work. In 1898 Fr. Variara was ordained.
He became an excellent spiritual director.
In
1905 Fr. Variara finished building the Fr. Unia Kindergarten, a place that
could accommodate up to 150 orphans and lepers and that guaranteed that they
could learn a trade to live by and fit into society in the future.
The beginnings of a religious institute
At
Agua de Dios, the Sisters of Providence had created the Association of the
Daughters of Mary, a group of some 200 girls. Fr. Variara was their confessor.
He identified some in the group who were called to religious life. A brave
project was born – something unique in the Church – a congregation that would
be allowed to admit people with leprosy. Inspired by the spirituality of Fr.
Beltrami, he developed the Salesian charism of sacrifice and founded the
Congregation of the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, which
today numbers 400 religious women.
A man of complete obedience
Fr.
Variara suffered much at the time of this founding through the lack of
understanding of people, including some superiors, who several times thought he
should be removed from Agua de Dios. Like Don Bosco, he was exemplary in
obedience. Even in the face of calumny he said nothing. He was credible because
he was obedient. Fr. Michael Rua encouraged him from Turin.
He
died far from his beloved lepers, as obedience had demanded. Now his remains
lie in Agua de Dios, in the chapel where his sisters worship. St. John Paul II
beatified him on April 14, 2002.
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