YOUTH HOLINESS

by Pascual Chávez Villanueva

PREVENTIVE SYSTEM

ALBERT

AND PETER

Here are the two “examples” for October: Albert Marvelli who became Blessed last month at Loreto, in front of a large number of members of Catholic Action, young people and adults. Peter Pércumas is a young man from Lithuania who died in Italy with the reputation for holiness.

_Albert Marvelli was a young man in love with life, with people and with God, always in the midst of youngsters, the poor and those suffering. He experienced at first hand the difficult years of the war. On 15/7/2003 the Osservatore Romano announced that the Pope was going to beatify this 28 year old engineer who during and after the second world war, in the city of Rimini battered and destroyed by the bombing, had become well known for his personal integrity, his social and political activity and his commitment to the Gospel. In fact he was beatified on the 5th of last month. Born in Ferrara on 21 March 1918, Albert obtained an engineering degree in 1941, and went to work at Fiat in Turin where he came to know and then joined Catholic Action. Unselfish in the Oratory, persevering in his studies, active in sport, a battler in politics, his was a life spent in an untiring search for truth and for charity.

He was the son of a bank employee and a woman involved with the Sisters of Charity, the women’s section of Catholic Action and the salesian oratory which her son also attended. Added to the formative influence of his family therefore was that of the oratory where he learned to pray and acquire a love for the Eucharist. When he was 21, after the sudden death of his father, he wrote in his diary: “Time is passing, in fact flying; we mustn’t fall behind in our spiritual life…Our daily life needs to be a constant determined uphill ascent. I must make progress, step by step, day by day, minute by minute; always aiming high to reach the summit, God himself. I have do it and I want to do it.” During the war he was particularly noted for his generosity. Having returned home he joined the Workers’ Party where he did a great deal to help the poor. But the following year on 5 October death took him when he was cycling to an election meeting and was run down by a military truck driven at breakneck speed. There were times when Albert even gave away his shoes to the poor, and he rode around Rimini on his bike taking food and spiritual comfort to refugees. The Church is proposing him to the young of the Third Millennium as a model of everyday holiness. “Albert has shown how in changed times and circumstances lay Christians know how to devote themselves unstintingly to building God’s kingdom in the family, at work, in education, in politics, bringing the Gospel into the heart of society,” the Pope has said. His beatification is a call to find the path of holiness in the family, in one’s profession, in politics; but it is also a recognition that salesian education is capable of producing saints.

Petriukas Perkumas is another fruit of salesian spirituality offered as a model to the young of Lithuania at the beginning of this third millennium. Born in 1917 in a small village, Kadagynai, without doubt Petriukas learned to love God and pray fervently in his family. This is also the testimony left by Fr Ananas Perkumas, a Salesian, Petriukas’s brother and a missionary in China, who always encouraged his vocation. Given the poverty of the family, Petriukas worked as a shepherd boy for a rich land owner and then as a marker in a billiard hall. Having saved a little money, Petriukas was able to fulfil his dream and go to Italy. Having arrived there he lived very frugally, he was poor but maintained his self-respect. At the beginning it was not easy, far from his family and his homeland, not knowing the language, and among people of a different culture. He was often mocked for being small, but his sincerity, generosity, and strong will helped him overcome every difficulty, motivated as he was by the desire to become a Son of Don Bosco. He dreamed of returning among his own people as a Salesian Brother, to open a school of “arts and trades” and work on behalf of Lithuanian boys. He wanted to share with them what he had discovered: the secret of happiness through carrying out his duties and serving others, love for the Eucharist and devotion to Mary Help of Christians. In a few short years he reached exceptional spiritual maturity. A heart condition soon struck him down: at 19 years of age on 12/1/1937, he died a holy death at Rebaudengo in Turin. His last words as he comforted those around him are remarkable: “Pray for me. From heaven I shall pray for you. And remember: Noble the heart, generous the spirit, iron the will”. It was his personal motto admirably summing up his character. Little Peter (Petriukas) in fact, didn’t stand out for his personal qualities but for his spiritual gifts: his frugal lifestyle, iron will, diligence in his duties, and his cheerfulness. He didn’t avoid hard work, but instead generously offered his services with great spontaneity. ■