Who is Zatti?

Nurse and Salesian brother.

For fifty years devoted himself to the care of the poor and sick in Viedma, Río Negro. There he directed one of the first hospitals in Argentina Patagonia

A saint for the entire Salesian Family.

 

Artémides Zatti (Italia, 1880 – Argentina, 1951)

01.

Migrant

02.

Believer

03.

Salesian

04.

Nurse

05.

Saint

A summary of his life in five minutes

The relative
of all the poor

01.

Migrant

Hope in the face of adversity.

Artémides Zatti was born in Boretto (Emilia Region, Italy) on October 12, 1880. His family, driven by poverty, emigrated to Argentina in 1897 and settled in Bahía Blanca.

There Artemide began to attend the parish run by the Salesians of Don Bosco, Catholic priests dedicated to the education and evangelization of the poorest and most abandoned young people.

02.

Believer

Faith to overcome his illness and guide his vocation.

At the age of 20, he entered the formation house of the Salesians in the city of Bernal, Buenos Aires, as a seminarian.

There he was entrusted to the care of a young priest with tuberculosis. Artemide also contracted the disease.

In 1902, he was sent to Saint Joseph Hospital in Viedma. He was accompanied there by the doctor and Salesian priest Evasio Garrone.

With him, he asks and obtains from Mary Help of Christians the grace of healing with the promise to devote his whole life to the care of the sick.

03.

Salesian

 

Joyful man staying with Don Bosco

In 1908, after recovering his health, he was admitted to the Salesian Congregation as coadjutor brother.

He begins to take care of the pharmacy adjoining the hospital, the only one in town.

After the death of Father Garrone in 1911, he took full charge of the hospital, one of the first of Argentinean Patagonia.

04.

Nurse

 

Charity to stand by those who suffer.

Viedma Hospital was the place where his holiness grew. His days started early:

“At 4:30 a.m., I get up. Meditation and the Holy Mass. Visit all pavilions. Later, on a bicycle, I visit the sick scattered around the city. After lunch, an enthusiastic game of bocce with the convalescents.

From 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., a new visit to the internal and external patients of the hospital. Until 8 p.m. I work in the pharmacy. New visit to the pavilions.

Until 11 p.m., study and ascetic readings. Then, I remain on permanent availability for any call”.

In 1914, he opted for Argentine nationality.

In 1917, he obtained the title of “Apt to practice in pharmacy” at the University of La Plata, then that of pharmacist.

Don Zatti will devote forty years of consecrated life to the service of the sick in the Viedma and Carmen region of Patagonia, especially the poorest.

In 1950, Zatti fell from a ladder and was forced to rest. After a few months, the symptoms of cancer appeared. He died on March 15, 1951.

05.

Saint

 

Gift for the People of God who suffer, believe and trust.

Zatti loved his patients in a truly moving way. He saw Jesus in them.

Faithful to the spirit of Don Bosco, he exercised tireless activity throughout his life, with the exception of the five days he spent in prison… for having received a prisoner in the hospital, who then escaped.

But above all, he was a man of God. One of the doctors at the hospital said, “I have believed in God ever since I met Mr. Zatti”.

His fame as a “Holy Nurse” spread rapidly, and the temple of the Salesian work of Viedma, where his remains rest, became a place of popular veneration.

Five years after his death, the city of Viedma dedicated a monument to him. And in 1975, the community changed the name of the regional hospital to “Artemides Zatti”.

In 1977, the bishops of Argentina asked the Pope to begin the process of declaring him a saint.

On April 14, 2002, Pope John Paul II declared him Blessed of the Catholic Church.