More and more events are taking place, which are aimed at proclaiming the heroic witness of the Conventual Franciscan Friar Placido CORTESE. His cause for beatification is underway in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Since his recognition by the President of the Italian Republic in 2015, and after the release in 2017 of the documentary “Father Placido Cortese – The Courage of Silence”, some fans of this great friar have created a website dedicated to him: http://www.padreplacidocortese.org/cortese/.
Visitors to the website can access a lot of material; from a thorough and well-documented biography to the many testimonials of those who knew Friar Placido. Visitors will find the writings of the Servant of God, filled with evangelical goodness and many current publications that try to answer what lay behind the fruitful silence he carried with him.
Silence was one of the most beautiful virtues that Friar Placido cultivated. His was a silence that cost his life but saved so many Jews, and a lot of others who were persecuted by the Nazi regime.
However, this article is about more than the website. The faithful who pass through St Anthony’s Basilica in Padua can visit the confessional where Friar Placido carried out his pastoral ministry. It is a small space that once contained the silence of our brother, while he was working to save so many people from the criminal outrages perpetrated by the SS. You can visit many other sites in Padua, which recall the testimony of the Servant of God.
The link posted above is an invitation to every friar in the Order to visit the website. We hope the material will soon be translated into other languages! The website is not only a means to get to know and fall in love with the Servant of God, but also, for example, to spread knowledge of the heroic deeds of many more of our confreres around the world, who are often silent witnesses of God’s love for man.
Friar Damian PĂTRAŞCU, General Postulator
