Blessed Alberto Marvelli

Who was Blessed Alberto Marvelli?

Blessed Alberto Marvelli was a young engineer from Rimini, on Italy's Adriatic coast, who lived his faith in the streets of a city destroyed by war. He led Catholic Action, went to Mass every morning, and rode his bicycle through the ruins with bread and blankets for anyone who needed them. After the war he served Rimini in public office. He died at twenty-eight, struck by a truck on his way to an election meeting, and Pope John Paul II beatified him in 2004. We keep his feast on October 5.

He was born in Ferrara on March 21, 1918, the second of six children of Luigi Marvelli and Maria Mayr. His mother kept an open door for the poor, and it was not unusual for half of Alberto's dinner to go to a hungry stranger. "Jesus has come, and he is hungry," she would say. The family moved to Rimini in 1930.

Catholic Action and a rule of life

In Rimini Alberto joined the Salesian oratory and the parish group of Catholic Action. His father died in 1933, and that October, at fifteen, Alberto began a spiritual diary. In it he set down his daily rule:

I rise as early as possible each morning, as soon as the alarm rings; a half-hour of meditation every day, not to be neglected except for circumstances out of my control; half an hour at least dedicated to spiritual reading; Mass every morning and Holy Communion as regularly as possible; confession once a week normally and frequent spiritual direction; daily recitation of the Rosary and Angelus at noon.

He loved sports, especially cycling, and the bicycle would become his tool for charity. At eighteen he was elected president of his Catholic Action group. At the University of Bologna he joined the Catholic university students and took Pier Giorgio Frassati as his model. He often said his whole program of life could be summed up in one word: holy.

He graduated in mechanical engineering on June 30, 1941, was called up for military service, and was released after a few months because his brothers were already at the front. He worked for a time at FIAT in Turin.

Rimini under the bombs

Rimini was bombed again and again in 1943 and 1944, and the family took refuge in Vergiano, a few miles outside the city. After each raid Alberto went back in. The Vatican biography says he helped the wounded, the dying and the homeless, pulled people from the rubble, and gave away food, clothing, mattresses and blankets, some bought with his own money. Sometimes he came home without his shoes, or without his bicycle, because he had given them away.

During the German occupation he saved many people from deportation. At the station of Santarcangelo, the Vatican biography says, he opened the sealed freight cars of trains waiting to leave and set the prisoners free.

His charity reached beyond Rimini. The Republic of San Marino, a few miles inland, honored him in 2006 with a marble plaque, grateful for "the generous work he carried out, amid the fury of the war," on its territory, where, the inscription says, he and his family took refuge in 1944 in that very building.

Rebuilding the city

After the Allies liberated Rimini in September 1944, the city was in ruins, without water, light or sanitation. The new authorities put Alberto in charge of finding housing for the homeless, and he later served on the city council and worked with the civil engineering office on the reconstruction. He opened a soup kitchen and prayed with the poor who came. He belonged to no party at first; later he joined the Christian Democrats, and he was respected even by the Communists whose ideas he openly opposed.

On the evening of October 5, 1946, he was cycling to an election meeting where he was a candidate when an army truck ran him down. He died a few hours later without regaining consciousness, with his mother beside him. The vote went ahead as the news spread, and many people voted for him anyway. His mother was elected in his place.

Beatification

Pope John Paul II beatified Alberto at Loreto on September 5, 2004, together with Pedro Tarrés i Claret and Pina Suriano. The Pope called him "a young man who was strong and free and a generous son of the Church of Rimini and of Catholic Action," and quoted his diary: "Jesus has enfolded me in his grace," and "I no longer see anyone but him, I think only of him."

• Approved: as for every beatification that is not a martyrdom, the Church approved a miracle attributed to his intercession before the ceremony at Loreto. His cause for canonization continues, with the Diocese of Rimini as its promoter.

Symbols of Blessed Alberto Marvelli in art

Alberto lived in the age of photography, so his likeness comes from photographs and from paintings made from them. He is shown as a young man in shirt sleeves and tie. Look for:

• A bicycle: the bicycle he rode through the ruins with supplies for the poor.
• Bread or blankets: his works of mercy during the war.
• A rosary: his daily prayer.
• Plans or drawings: the engineer who helped rebuild his city.

Feast day, tomb and prayer

We keep his feast on October 5. His tomb is in the church of Sant'Agostino in Rimini, where pilgrims come to pray. The Diocese of Rimini presents him as a model of holiness in everyday life. See also the feast day calendar.

We have not found a widely used English prayer to Blessed Alberto. Let us ask him to pray for young people, for engineers and for those who serve in public office, that they may work, as he did, for the poor. Blessed Alberto Marvelli, pray for us.