– June 15, 1988, Mong Ping, Burma) was an Italian priest and missionary.
He is venerated by the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

.
He spent 65 of his 91 years in forests of Burma assisting Akhà and Ikò tribal peoples, particularly children and widows.

Early life

Clement Vismara was born in Agrate Brianza from Attilio Egidio Vismara (1865–1905), saddler, and Stella Annunziata Porta (1872–1902), seamstress, fifth after his brothers Egidio, Carlo, Francesco and his sister Maria.
He prematurely lost his mother first, who died in childbirth of the sixth brother, Luigi, in 1902, and then lost his father in 1905.
The child was entrusted to the care of relatives, attended the school and then, in 1913, entered the Seminary of St. Peter Martyr (Seveso

Seveso

Seveso is a town and comune in the Province of Monza and Brianza, in the Region of Lombardy. The economy of the town has traditionally been based around the furniture industry....

, Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

).

On September 21, 1916, during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, he is called up and sent to the forefront as a private of 80th Infantry

Infantry

Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

 Regiment

Regiment

A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...

 Brigade Rome.
He fought on Mount Maio and Adamello

Adamello-Presanella

The Adamello-Presanella Alpine group is a mountain range in the Italian Alps. It is part of the Southern Limestone Alps. It is located in the provinces of Trentino and Brescia...

. He was honorably discharged on November 6, 1919 with three medals for bravery and the rank of sergeant major

Sergeant Major

Sergeants major is a senior non-commissioned rank or appointment in many militaries around the world. In Commonwealth countries, Sergeants Major are usually appointments held by senior non-commissioned officers or warrant officers...

.

Mong Lin mission

After resuming his studies in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

 at the Lombard Seminary for Foreign Missions (which in 1926 will become PIME or Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions) Clement is ordained

Holy Orders (Catholic Church)

Holy Orders in the Catholic Church includes three orders: bishop, priest, and deacon. The Church regards ordination as a Sacrament. In the phrase "Holy Orders", the word "holy" simply means "set apart for some purpose." The word order designates an established civil body or corporation with a...

 on May 26, 1923. Immediately after he leaves from Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 (August, 2) and arrives at
Toungoo

Taungoo

-Administration:*Taungoo District Peace and Development Council - List of Six Townships*Taungoo Township Peace and Development Council*Taungoo Ward Peace and Development Council - 22 Wards*Taungoo Municipal*District and Township Immigration Dept...

, Burma, in late September to study English and local dialects. He moves to Kengtung

Roman Catholic Diocese of Kengtung

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Kengtung is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Burma....

 mission in March 1924 and then leaves to found the new Mong Lin mission on October 27, 1924.

Misery is great, the food poor and totally inadequate, tropical diseases decimate the missionaries (6 during the decade 1926-1936, all young people) so that in 1928 the General Superior of PIME father Paolo Manna

Paolo Manna

Paolo Manna a missionary in Burma who was the superior general of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions. He was the founder of the Pontifical Missionary Union. He was beatified by John Paul II in 2001.-Externals links:*...

, visiting Mong Lin, threatened the bishop of Kengtung

Roman Catholic Diocese of Kengtung

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Kengtung is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Burma....

 to quit the mission if other young missionaries died for lack of nutritious food or because they lived in huts of mud and straw.
In 1931 his brother, father Antonio Farronato (32 years), died of malaria and Vismara remained alone.

Despite the difficulties of an absolutely primitive, dangerous and often hostile environment the activity of father Clement continued, and indeed expanded during the 30s when he founded other missions (Keng Lap, Mong Yong e Mong Pyak, with resident missionaries and nuns).

Vismara identifies the pagan and fatalistic conception of life as the blocking element of tribal society: men often do not work and are addicted to opium, women and children are commonly abused, abandoned, sold or killed.

He concentrated his efforts in giving more rewarding jobs for indigenous becoming first a farmer, breeder, tailor, barber, mason, lumberjack and so on.
His objective are mainly orphans and widows, women who were abandoned by everyone and considered bearers of bad luck.
Unlike other missionaries he tried, whenever possible, to maintain a healthy lifestyle: schedule of day, cleaning, suitable clothing, ordered eating, use of dishes.
This behaviour, along with his strength, improved his stamina.

In June 1941, while the Japaneses are planning to occupy Burma, Clement was interned by the British army in Kalaw

Kalaw

For the bird locally known as Kalaw see Rufous HornbillKalaw is a hill town in the Shan State of Burma. It is located in Kalaw Township in Taunggyi District. The town was popular with the British during colonial rule. Kalaw is the main place of the novel by Jan Philipp Sendker, "Das...

 with twelve other Italian missionaries because they belonged to an enemy nation.
In January 1942 the Japanese army invaded Burma and late April they freed the Italian missionaries held in Kalaw.
The Mong Lin mission (where Clement arrived at the end of August) was intact but almost occupied by the Japanese army. Vismara reopened the orphanage and adapted to work as a woodcutter for the soldiers, together with his boys.
In 1945 the war ended and in 1948 Burma got its independendence, followed by the beginning of separatist guerrillas which involved ethnicities of the area (in the years 1950-1955 five brethren of PIME were murdered: Pietro Galastri, Mario Vergara, Alfredo Cremonesi, Pietro Manghisi, Eliodoro Farronato).
In the first 31 years of his mission father Clement has turned Mong Lin into a town with about 4,000 baptized.

Mong Ping mission

Although nearly sixty father Vismara was in good health and he received many foreign aid because he wrote many letters and articles where he told about, so brilliant and witty, the life he led.
In January 1955 Clement was sent by surprise by the bishop, Msgr. Guercilena, in Mong Ping, 225 km away, a higher and more healthy place, but where he had to start almost from scratch.
He wrote to his friend Pietro Migone: «My dear, my heart wavers! after thirty-two years, when I least expect it I was transferred from Mong Lin to Mong Ping... I obey because I'm convinced that if I did on my own I should have got it all wrong».
Throughout 1957 he was in Italy for the only holiday of his life, shared among medical care, conferences, a pilgrimage to Lourdes

Lourdes

Lourdes is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in south-western France.Lourdes is a small market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees, famous for the Marian apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes occurred in 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous...

, visits to construction sites and, above all, a full month's retreat.
But his thoughts always turned to his people and his orphans. When back in Burma, he wrote: «In Italy more than rest I worked hard».
But he was happy because he carried a lot of aid, and he added: «Not to offend you but I'm much better here than in Agrate. Certainly there you eat well, drink better, sleep on soft ... But here I can do something good every day: what could I do there, if not chatting?»

In 1961 he wrote a biography of father Stephen Aikao Wong, the first local priest from Kengtung

Roman Catholic Diocese of Kengtung

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Kengtung is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Burma....

 killed by some buddhists hostile to the many conversions obtained among Akha people.

During the sixties he provided Mong Ping of the necessary facilities: orphanage (1960), school (1961), the church with the Lourdes Cave next to it (1962), houses for missionaries and sisters (1963).
The school, started from scratch in 1958, counted 123 pupils in autumn 1960, 232 in October 1962, 400 in 1965 («two thirds of which pagans», he wrote).

But in 1962, after a military coup, the new socialist government, inspired by the Soviet model, nationalized all private activities and severely limited freedom of expression and movement.
All missionaries arrived after 1948 were expelled. Only seniors arrived in Burma before the World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 could remain.

«He never got old»

Despite the difficulties with the new regime, which prevented the arrival of new missionaries, and despite various ailments (prostate, misadventure to a foot, dentures) his work continued with an enviable stamina.
In 1979, aged 82, he went to Taunggyi

Taunggyi

-Transportation:The main access to Taunggyi is by road. A railway line that passes through Taunggyi was recently built in 1995, but at the moment it offers no passenger service. Regular railway passenger service to the rest of the country is through the town of Shwenyaung, twelve miles to the...

 by jeep to meet the superior of the PIME and, after returning in Mong Ping, 14 hours of travel, could write: I arrived home at 7:20 pm blanched, dusted, floured like a fish before putting in a pan. A unison chorus of over 200 orphans, boys and girls, greeted me. Here is my kingdom, here I am the sovereign and live happy.

In 1980 he blessed the new district Tongtà he founded among the ethnic Iko.
In subsequent years he had to adapt, with embarrassment, to get carried on a stretcher but continued to visit the villages.
The last missionary district (parish) opened by father Clement, in 1986, is in Pannulong, with three nuns resident and 42 Christian villages in the Akha tribe in need.

On June 15, 1988 at 8:15 p.m. father Clement Vismara died, serene and happy in Mong Ping, aged 91.
This is the testimony given on him by father Angelo Campagnoli at the Diocesan Process:
Father Clement Vismara was buried, as he requested, at Mong Ping in the square of the church he built in 1962, in front of Lourdes Cave.
Many buddhists and Muslims attend the funeral too. His tomb is a pilgrimage site for people of all religions.

Process of canonization

In Agrate, his hometown, immediately the parish missionary group began to manage for his beatification

Beatification

Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...

. In 1989 was unveiled a statue.
On February 10, 1994 Abraham Than, Bishop of the Kengtung

Roman Catholic Diocese of Kengtung

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Kengtung is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Burma....

, appointed Father Piero Gheddo postulator for the cause of Father Vismara. Father Gheddo appointed Dr. Francesca Consolini as an external consultant.
The management of the Diocesan stage of the beatification process, from 1996 to 1998, was held by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milan

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milan

The Archdiocese of Milan is a metropolitan see of the Catholic Church in Italy. It has long maintained its own rite: the Ambrosian rite. It is led by the Archbishop of Milan who serves as metropolitan to the dioceses of Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Crema, Cremona, Lodi, Mantova, Pavia, and Vigevano.The...

, Italy, because of difficulties in Myanmar.
Monsignor

Monsignor

Monsignor, pl. monsignori, is the form of address for those members of the clergy of the Catholic Church holding certain ecclesiastical honorific titles. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian monsignore, from the French mon seigneur, meaning "my lord"...

 Ennio Apeciti, President of the process, traveled to Burma, Thailand and Brasil, as well as in Italy, to interview those who knew Father Clement.
In 1999 began the “Roman process” of the Congregation for Sainthood Causes which receives testimonies about miracles obtained through the intercession of father Clement, as required by rules.
On March 15, 2008, the Holy Father

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

, His Holiness

His Holiness

His Holiness is the official style or manner of address in reference to the leaders of certain religious groups. In Christianity, specifically the Orthodox Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church, Armenian Orthodox Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and the Roman Catholic...

, Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI

Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...

 signs the ”Decree of Venerability” for Father Clement Vismara, recognizing in him a Christian who has practiced virtues of the Gospel in a heroic grade.
On Saturday, April 2, 2011 Pope Benedict XVI received in audience His Eminence

His Eminence

His Eminence is a historical style of reference for high nobility, still in use in various religious contexts.-Catholicism:The style remains in use as the official style or standard of address in reference to a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, reflecting his status as a Prince of the Church.A...

, Angelo Cardinal Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints

Congregation for the Causes of Saints

The Congregation for the Causes of Saints is the congregation of the Roman Curia which oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, passing through the steps of a declaration of "heroic virtues" and beatification...

, and approved, among many other advancements of beatification causes, the official recognition of a miracle attributed to Father Clement's intercession. This is the necessary element required for him (given that he is not a martyr) to be approved for beatification.
Father Vismara's beatification took place on June 26, 2011 in the Piazza Duomo of Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

.

Writings of father Vismara translated into English

• Apostle of the little ones (original title : Il Bosco delle Perle, translation by: Catherine Bolton) - PIME World Press - Detroit, Michigan, 1998 - 171 pages, ISBN 0-9642010-7-0

External links

• pime.org PIME - Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions
• pimeusa.org/saints PIME - Saints from Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (North American Region site)