Ave Maria Pisano

Plunged into total darkness, the young Cesare sank into a deep depression, losing his faith and feeling a strong resentment against God. In 1915, he was admitted to the Davide Chiossone Institute in Genoa, an establishment for the blind. It was there that he met a nurse, Sister Maria Teresa Chiapponi (a Daughter of Charity), whose patience, charity, and gentle but firm words ("Do you know that you are already blind in your eyes, do you also want to be blind in your soul?") began to shake his revolt. In November 1918, following the death of his grandmother, Cesare went to confession and received communion again, marking the beginning of his inner conversion.

Desiring to dedicate himself to God, he was put in contact with Don Luigi Orione (Saint Luigi Orione), founder of the Little Work of Divine Providence. In 1920, at the age of 20, Cesare was welcomed by Don Orione at the "Paterno" in Tortona. He completed his novitiate at the Villa Moffa in Bra (Cuneo). In 1923, he joined the branch of the Blind Hermits of Divine Providence (Eremiti ciechi della Divina Provvidenza), founded by Don Orione for blind religious dedicated to contemplation. He was sent to the Hermitage of Sant'Alberto di Butrio (Ponte Nizza, Pavia), an ancient 11th-century Benedictine monastery then in ruins, which Don Orione wished to revive. Upon taking the habit, he received the name Brother Ave Maria.

At the Hermitage of Sant'Alberto di Butrio, Brother Ave Maria led a life of intense prayer, penance, and manual labor adapted to his blindness. Despite his disability, he defined himself as "the happy blind man" (il cieco felice). His cell became a place of pilgrimage for many visitors in search of spiritual counsel, comfort, and light. His smiling kindness, his wisdom, and his deep union with God struck all who approached him. Don Orione himself said of him that he was "a beautiful soul" and that he would not be surprised if he performed miracles. Witnesses, including Don Orione himself, reported seeing him in a state of levitation during his prayers. Brother Ave Maria also maintained a vast spiritual correspondence (Lettere dall'eremo), becoming an apostle for his blind brothers and for all the afflicted. In the spring of 1963, the famous Italian filmmaker and writer Pier Paolo Pasolini visited him at the hermitage to speak with him while preparing his film The Gospel According to St. Matthew. In 1962, Brother Ave Maria solemnly celebrated the "golden jubilee" of his blindness (50 years of life without physical light) with a hymn of thanksgiving to Jesus, realizing that his blindness had been the greatest grace of his life because it allowed him to find the true inner light.

Stricken by illness, Brother Ave Maria was hospitalized in Voghera (Pavia), where he died holily on January 21, 1964, at the age of 63. His body rests in the crypt of the Hermitage of Sant'Alberto di Butrio, which has remained an important place of pilgrimage. The cause for beatification was introduced in 1982. On December 18, 1997, Pope John Paul II promulgated the decree recognizing the heroic nature of his virtues, thus conferring upon him the title of Venerable.

The spirituality of Brother Ave Maria rests on total abandonment to Divine Providence and on a deep Marian devotion. His religious name, chosen by Don Orione, evokes this absolute trust in the Virgin Mary. He knew how to transform a human tragedy (the loss of his sight) into a path of sanctification and perfect joy, testifying that true happiness does not depend on external circumstances but on the presence of God in the soul. His legacy remains alive through the Orionine family and the pilgrims who continue to visit his hermitage and read his writings.