Alfredo Cremonesi
Alfredo Cremonesi (15 May 1902 – 7 February 1953) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions. He studied in Crema and Milan before setting off from Genoa to Naples and then to the Burmese missions via boat. He pledged that he would never return to the Italian mainland and spent the remainder of his life working with the Burmese people in mountain villages despite the great difficulties he faced. Cremonesi was also a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II after the Japanese occupied the nation.
The Burmese independence reached in 1948 prompted guerrilla conflict which caused great unrest and destruction to the point that Cremonesi and other missionaries were forced into exile so as to remain safe. But he reached out to the guerillas and received their permission to return to the village he worked in. It was also there in that village that government forces mistook him for a rebel - or a supporter of the rebels - and shot him dead alongside the village chief and two girls.
The beatification process for the late priest opened in 2004 and he became titled as a Servant of God. Pope Francis approved his beatification and it took place in Crema on 19 October 2019.
In the Martyrology
- February 7 Blessed Alfredo Cremonesi, priest and martyr