Of Enzo Gabrieli*
He was led by a profound love for God and for the last of Don Nazareno Lanciotti, a diocesan priest who is beatified today, Saturday 13 June, in Brazil. The celebration takes place at 9am (3pm in Rome) in Jauru, a small village in the diocese of São Luiz de Cáceres, in the state of Mato Grosso. Presiding over the rite, representing Leo XIV, was Brazilian Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
The first martyr of Mato Grosso, Don Lanciotti was born in Rome on 3 March 1940 into a modest and religious family and grew up in Subiaco, the city of origin of his parents, who were displaced during the war. Having entered the abbey seminary of Santa Scolastica and ordained a priest on 29 June 1966, after the first years of ministry in the city at the parish of San Giovanni Crisostomo, he decided to leave as a missionary. His vocation “ad gentes” had matured thanks to the commitment to poor countries shared with the young people of his parish and the “Operazione Mato Grosso” association.
Sustained by the Eucharist and Marian devotion, he arrived in Jauru on 12 January 1972. Under his leadership the mission grew extraordinarily: on 12 October 1976 he founded the local parish, dedicated to Our Lady of the Pillar. He established 57 rural ecclesial communities, introducing daily Eucharistic adoration into each one. He created fundamental social works: a medical dispensary (which later became one of the busiest hospitals in the region), a home for the elderly and abandoned sick dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and a school that offered education and food to hundreds of children. He also started a minor seminary to respond to the serious shortage of local clergy. In 1987, having met the founder, Don Stefano Gobbi, he joined the Marian Priestly Movement and the following year he became its national director for Brazil.
His commitment as a missionary and announcer of the Word translated into an open fight against injustices with pastoral imagination, trying to keep young people, families and workers away from danger. When the Brazilian authorities decided to build a new dam in the area, the influx of workers from all over Brazil and Bolivia favored the proliferation of drug dealing, gambling and prostitution. Don Nazareno took the stand in defense of young people and workers, warning them of the dangers of narcos and traffickers. Every Saturday he organized alternative activities to take the kids off the streets, repeating to them: “Eucharistic adoration, the rosary and devotion to the Madonna will save you.”
This tireless fight against crime and prostitution merchants attracted serious threats to him. On the afternoon of Sunday 11 February 2001, during a catechesis under a light drizzle, Don Nazareno confessed a sad omen to his young people: «These are the tears of Heaven for me. When you look for me, you will always find me at the foot of the tabernacle.”
That same evening, while he was having dinner with eight collaborators, two hooded assassins broke into his house. To simulate a robbery gone wrong, they threatened those present with weapons and demanded money. Although the guests had put everything they owned on the table and the priest tried to reassure the criminals by offering himself, the killers had only one objective. After staging the game of “Russian roulette”, the hitmen revealed that they had been sent by powerful locals annoyed by the Church’s action. Before shooting him at point blank range, one of them said: «We have come to kill you because you bother us too much. I am the devil.” Mortally wounded, Don Nazareno was transported first to the hospital in Cuiabá and then to the Syrian-Lebanese hospital in São Paulo. He died on February 22, 2001, aged 61, after forgiving his killers. He was buried, as he had predicted, at the foot of the tabernacle of his parish church.
The date of his death is linked to some historical coincidences: on 22 February 2001, while the missionary died in Brazil, in Rome Saint John Paul II created Jorge Mario Bergoglio cardinal, reminding those present that purple symbolized the blood of the martyrs who offered their lives for Christ throughout the world. Years later, it was precisely that cardinal, who became Pope Francis, who signed the decree – the last of the pontificate – for the beatification of Don Lanciotti on 14 April 2025, a week before his death.
Writing to his mother on 22 February 1964, Don Nazareno expressed his desire for holiness and many remember one of his phrases, pronounced in front of a Madonna of Lourdes while playing football in the courtyard of the seminary with his companions: “Either saint or nothing”. A profound love for the Virgin Mary has always accompanied and comforted him. On the evening of his arrival in the Brazilian mission, before falling asleep on the pews of the church-shanty, he noticed that there was a Marian statuette; he entrusted his mission to her saying: «You were waiting for me!».
The path towards the altars for the priest was rapid: on 2 August 2007 the presentation of the supplex libellus to the bishop of São Luiz de Cáceres, Monsignor José Vieira de Lima; on 16 October 2007 the concession of nihil obstat from the Holy See. The diocesan investigation took place from 18 November 2007 to 8 January 2009. After the study and composition of the Position on 1 April 2025 a favorable opinion was given by the ordinary of the cardinals and bishops of the Congregation. On 14 April 2025 with Pope Francis the decree of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints recognizing martyrdom. Finally, Leo XIV authorized the beatification rite for 13 June 2026, twenty-five years after the death of Don Lanciotti and on the day of the liturgical memory of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
*Postulator
