Enrico Beretta

In 1949, Father Alberto Maria arrived in Grajaú, in the state of Maranhão in Brazil, a region then completely devoid of medical assistance. To practice legally, he first had to have his medical degree validated in Porto Alegre. With the help of his brother Francesco, a civil engineer, he undertook the construction of the Saint Francis of Assisi diocesan hospital, which was inaugurated in 1964. It was also that year, on August 16, that he made his perpetual vows as a Capuchin. For more than three decades, he balanced his priestly ministry and his medical profession. Nicknamed the "saintly doctor," he tirelessly traveled to remote villages to heal bodies and celebrate Mass. Sensitive to the distress of the excluded, he was particularly committed to lepers. He promoted the creation of the Villa San Marino, a reception and care center for patients with Hansen's disease (leprosy), inaugurated in 1971. For him, treating the sick was a way of touching the body of Christ, often repeating that the true physician was the Lord.

On Christmas Day 1981, Father Alberto's active life was brutally interrupted by a severe cerebral hemorrhage. Repatriated to Italy in January 1982, he spent the last twenty years of his existence heavily disabled, having lost the use of speech and a large part of his mobility. This once-active missionary accepted this long ordeal with heroic gentleness and resignation. Housed mainly with his brother, Father Giuseppe, or at the Capuchin infirmary in Bergamo, he transformed his room into a place of continuous prayer. Despite his forced silence, he maintained a spiritual correspondence with his Brazilian missions and continued to intercede for them through the Rosary. His patience in the face of illness, his filial piety toward the Virgin Mary, and his constant union with God deeply marked all those who approached him. His reputation for holiness, already immense in Brazil during his lifetime, spread to Italy, where the faithful saw in him a model of total abandonment to the divine will through suffering.

Due to his enduring reputation for holiness, the cause for the beatification and canonization of Father Alberto Beretta was opened in the Diocese of Bergamo. The diocesan inquiry took place from June 18, 2008, to September 11, 2013, gathering numerous testimonies regarding his life and virtues. Following the examination of the Positio by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic nature of his virtues on December 14, 2023, thereby conferring upon him the title of Venerable. Although he was unable to attend the canonization of his sister, Gianna Beretta Molla, in 2004 due to his passing three years earlier, he had the immense joy of participating in her beatification in Rome on April 24, 1994, where he was able to meet Pope Saint John Paul II personally. For Father Alberto to be proclaimed Blessed, the Church now awaits the official recognition of a miracle attributed to his intercession.

Father Alberto Beretta leaves behind the memory of a man who knew how to perfectly harmonize medical science and Franciscan charity. His work continues today in Brazil through the Saint Francis of Assisi Hospital in Grajaú and the "Angels of Frei Alberto" association, which continue to help the most vulnerable populations. In Italy, the Father Alberto Beretta Association in Bergamo maintains his memory and supports charitable projects. The mortal remains of the venerable Capuchin rest in the church of Sant'Alessandro in Cattura in Bergamo, within the chapel dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi, where many pilgrims come to seek his intercession. His life, intimately linked to that of his sister Saint Gianna, testifies to the spiritual fruitfulness of a family entirely given to God and to the service of others.