594 Artemides Zatti miracle
PERSONAL TESTIMONY OF MIRACLE LEADING TO BEATIFICATION
 
It is not very often that we have the chance to know first hand of a miraclulous intervention brought about through the intercession of a saint.  Here is one such in view of yesterday's beatification of Bl. Artemides Zatti:
 
"Fr. Carlos Bosio, provincial of Rosario in Argentina, gave the goodnight at evening prayer.  He gave a personal testimony on Sig. Artimedes Zatti. 
When Fr. Bosio was in his first year of theology, the students traveled to Bahia Blanca and Fortin Mercedes for an outing at the beginning of March.  It was there that he got sick and was diagnosed as having appendicitis.  The doctor operated on him, and three days later he had developed gangrene in the affected area.  The doctor performed a new operation, and he was in intensive care for two days.  After 15 days he was transferred to a better hospital for more critical care.  The gangrene was still present, and his fever and infection persisted.  The infection began spreading from the appendix area to the lungs.  The fever would not go down. 

    Another diagnosis was done, and the doctors discovered that he had septicemia; the infection had spread to the blood.  His immune system quickly deteriorated.  After another operation, the doctor determined that his immune system had deteriorated to the extent that death was inevitable.  On April 5th the doctors told his parents that there was no hope.  Then on April 18th, after having gone through the night in a coma, he awoke in the morning, asked for a little something to eat, and to the amazement of the doctors involved, the fever had diminished.  From then on his cure was rapid and total.

    The cure was attributed to Br. Artimedes Zatti.  As Fr. Bosio explains, when he had become ill, the director of the theology community and the assistant of the theology students had begun a novena to Bro. Zatti for a cure.  The person leading the cause for Zatti’s beatification presented this case as a miracle on Zatti’s behalf.  The case was presented to Rome, and on March 9, 2000 five professors voted affirmatively that the explanation of the cure was beyond natural means. On October 27, 2000 a group of theologians at the Vatican also voted in favor of the miraculous intervention.  Finally the Holy Father gave his approval.

    Fr. Bosio concluded his goodnight by thanking his family members, and the Salesians who began the novena to Zatti for his cure.  He shared with us that
whenever any difficulty or pressing situation causes him to lose his inner peace, he recalls the days spent in the hospital, and that seems to be enough to put things in order.  He also mentioned that the real miracle is the one of our daily lives; to be able to touch the hearts of others in charity, to be available to the needs of our confreres, especially the ones who need our help the most.  He noted that Zatti was a man who believed in living life to the fullest by loving those whom he met each day in a simple yet very profound and caring way.  He ended by asking us to pray to Zatti that the Lord will bless our congregation with many more brothers in the years to come