Giuseppe Lazzati
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Venerable Giuseppe Lazzati |
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|---|---|
| Born |
22 June 1909 Milan, Kingdom of Italy |
| Died | 18 May 1986 (aged 76) Milan, Italy |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Patronage | Secular Institute of Christ the King |
Giuseppe Lazzati (22 June 1909 – 18 May 1986) was an Italian Roman Catholic rector of the Sacred Heart college in Milan and a former parliamentarian. He was also the founder of the Secular Institute of Christ the King. Lazzati served as a professor and for a time served as a politician at the close of the Second World War despite initial hesitance in doing so. He later resigned to further dedicate himself to his lecturing while instituting the Secular Institute of Christ the King to bring together men who wished to consecrate themselves to God though not as religious. He was a collaborator of several well-known figures in Italian politics such as Giorgio La Pira and Aldo Moro while he maintained close relationships with Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II.
The cause for Lazzati's beatification opened after his death and in 2013 Pope Francis named him as Venerable after recognizing that Lazzati had lived a life of heroic virtue.
Giuseppe Lazzati was born on 22 June 1909 in Milan in the Porta Ticinese district as the fourth of eight to Carlo Lazzati and Angela Mezzanotte. His baptism was celebrated on 25 June at the church of San Gottardo al Corso in Milan.
Lazzati began his schooling in 1915 but had to stop in 1918 since his parents decided to move to Alassio in order for his father to recuperate from tuberculosis. He returned to Milan in 1920 for his high school studies and was considered to be a brilliant student in his Latin and Greek studies.
In his late adolescence he experienced the dramatic upheavals in Italian life in the period that followed the First World War with the violent rise to prominence of Fascism that Benito Mussolini led. Since 1920 he attended meetings of the student association "Santo Stanislao" in Milan which had an influence on his religious formation. In 1927 he became a student in the department of Classical Literature of the Sacred Heart college in Milan which was under the direction of Father Agostino Gemelli; in 1931 he received his degree with the grade summa cum laude. Professor Paolo Ubaldi was his mentor during the course of his education. In 1931 he arrived at a decision to remain celibate and to opt for a consecrated life in the world. In 1934 he embarked upon a career as a lecturer and also in 1934 became the president for the diocese of Milan of the Youth Branch of Catholic Action and remained in the post until 1945. In 1939 he was appointed to the grade of "docente incaricato" in Ancient Christian Literature also in 1939 founded under the name Milites Christi an organization for consecrated men which in 1969 assumed the name Secular Institute of Christ the King. He did this with the support of Cardinal Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster. It received papal approval in 1963 from Pope Paul VI.
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