A Priestly Fraternity Heroic unto Death

A Priestly Fraternity Heroic unto Death

Fr. Martin Capelli, SCJ

(ANS - Vatican City – November 26, 2025) - Pope Leo XIV has granted recognition to the martyrdom of Fr. Martino Capelli, SCJ, companion of Fr. Elijah Comini, SDB, in witnessing to the faith even to shedding their blood.

During the audience granted on Friday, November 21, to the prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Card. Marcello Semeraro, Pope Leo authorized the promulgation of new decrees, including for 2 martyrs, the Servants of God Fr. Ubaldo Marchioni (1918-1944), priest of the diocese of Bologna, and Fr. Martino Capelli (1912-1944), a Dehonian, both killed in hatred of the faith by the German SS in the context of the Monte Sole Massacre, already known as the “Marzabotto Massacre.”

Fr. Capelli, in particular, acquires great prominence among the stars of the firmament of Salesian holiness for having shared the last months of his ministry, sufferings and martyrdom with Fr. Elijah Comini, a Salesian whose cause of beatification as a martyr was definitively approved on December 18, 2024, by Pope Francis. Since November 21, Fr. Comini's martyrdom can therefore be re-imagined as a “Yes” to the Lord and to his brothers and sisters, even unto death, within a logic of priestly fraternity, particularly with Fr. Capelli.

Fr. Elijah Comini

Born in Nembro, in the province of Bergamo, in 1912, Fr. Martino Capelli was baptized with the name Nicholas Joseph, and at the age of 17 began his postulancy at the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Dehonians) in the house in Albisola Superiore (Savona). As a novice he took the name Martin, in memory of his father, and after theological studies in Bologna, he was ordained a priest in 1938, at the age of 26. In Rome, he studied at the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Propaganda Fide Athenaeum; he also attended courses at the Vatican School of Palaeography. He was called to teach sacred Scripture and church history at the studentate of the Dehonian Missions in Bologna and then in Castiglione dei Pepoli. During World War II, he moved with the students to Burzanella, in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. In the summer of 1944, Fr. Capelli came to Salvaro to help the elderly parish priest of San Michele in the pastoral service of the village, despite the fact that the area was at the center of armed clashes involving German and Allied soldiers and partisan groups. He did not return to the community as the Dehonians had requested, who feared for his life, but remained close to the people of the village. When the German army occupied the area of Marzabotto and Monte Sole in force, where more than 770 people were exterminated, on 29 September 1944, after the massacre perpetrated by the Nazis in the nearby locality known as “Creda,” Fr. Capelli rushed to bring comfort to the dying. He was imprisoned, however, and forced to transport ammunition: together with Salesian Fr. Comini, who worked with him in Salvaro, and another hundred or so people, including other priests (who were later released), he was taken to a stable in Pioppe di Salvaro, where he comforted and confessed the other prisoners. On the evening of October 1, 1944, he was killed together with Fr. Comini and a group of people considered “unfit for work,” near the cistern of the spinning mill in Pioppe di Salvaro. His body, like that of the other victims, was cast into the the Reno River.

For the beatification of these martyrs, we are still waiting to learn the date and place. Among the priests who were victims of the Monte Sole massacres in the autumn of 1944 is Fr. Giovanni Fornasini, who was beatified in the basilica of San Petronio, Bologna, on September 26, 2021. “I thank Pope Leo XIV,” says Card. Matteo Zuppi, “for this new gift to the Church of Bologna and all those who have worked in recent years to highlight the exemplary story of the martyrs of Monte Sole. Their memory will help us to bear witness in trials to the strength of God’s love and closeness to the people.”