Francesco Maria Perez

Deeply moved by the material and spiritual misery affecting the working classes of Verona at the end of the 19th century, Count Perez sought to remedy it through rigorous charitable commitment. It was in this context that he had the decisive meeting with the young cleric Giovanni Calabria (future Saint John Calabria). An unwavering spiritual friendship was born between the two men, despite their twelve-year age gap. On April 30, 1898, Francesco Perez was the very first member to register with the Pia Unione per l'assistenza agli ammalati poveri (Pious Union for the Assistance of the Poor Sick), which Giovanni Calabria had just founded. In 1899, he also joined the Diocesan Conference of Saint Vincent de Paul, of which he became a particularly active member, tasked several times with drafting and presenting the annual report before the bishop and local authorities. In 1907, he provided decisive financial and personal support for the creation of the first shelter for abandoned children, the Casa Buoni Fanciulli (House of Good Children), opened by Father Calabria in the vicolo Case Rotte. The following year, in 1908, he sold part of his personal assets to acquire the former Somascan convent of San Zeno in Monte in Verona, which would become the motherhouse of the future congregation. Feeling the call to total stripping away and radical consecration, Francesco Perez made a decision that stunned the Veronese nobility. On August 20, 1909, at the age of 48, after having sold all his properties and distributed the proceeds of the sale to orphans and the poor, he entered definitively as a religious into the work of Father Calabria. He thus became a lay brother (professed religious) within the Congregation of the Poor Servants of Divine Providence. For twenty-eight years, he renewed his vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience every year. He who had been a wealthy count and a respected lawyer chose to live in the most absolute destitution, lodging in a cold and bare cell. He accepted with joy and humility the most thankless tasks of the house: he was by turns a porter, a gardener, took care of cleaning the restrooms, and cared for street children, even going so far as to remove ticks from them. Father Calabria, who had absolute confidence in his wisdom and spiritual maturity, entrusted him for many years with the formation of the new brothers of the congregation.

Brother Francesco Maria Perez passed away holily in Verona on December 4, 1937, seventeen years to the day before his friend and founder, Don Giovanni Calabria. His funeral bore witness to the deep veneration held for him by the inhabitants of Verona, who were edified by his heroic humility. On December 4, 1967, on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of his death, his mortal remains were transferred to rest alongside the tomb of Don Calabria, at San Zeno in Monte. The process of beatification and canonization was officially opened at the diocesan level on December 5, 1988, by the Bishop of Verona. The diocesan inquiry into his life, virtues, and reputation for holiness was closed on May 24, 1990. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints legally validated this inquiry with a decree dated February 26, 1993. The Positio super virtutibus, a summary document demonstrating the heroic nature of his virtues, was published in 1994.

On June 1, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing the heroic nature of the virtues of the Servant of God Francesco Maria Perez, thereby conferring upon him the title of Venerable. The cause for beatification is currently still in progress, awaiting the official recognition of a miracle attributed to his intercession.

The spirituality of Brother Francesco Maria Perez is characterized by what his contemporaries described as "evangelical folly." His journey is a radical testimony of voluntary dispossession, in the image of Christ who became poor to enrich us. By renouncing his titles of nobility, his fortune, and his career as a lawyer to become the servant of the least, he heroically embodied the spirit of the Beatitudes. His legacy remains alive through the work of the Poor Servants of Divine Providence. In 1993, the "Associazione di Volontariato calabriano 'Fr. Francesco Perez'" was founded to perpetuate his work of solidarity with marginalized and suffering people. Furthermore, the reception facility "Casa Fratel Francesco Perez," completed in 1984 in Negrar (Verona), continues to offer accommodation and appropriate care to the elderly, senior priests, and people in situations of great precariousness.