Giuseppe Girotti

Blessed Giuseppe Girotti, O.P. (19 July 1905 - 1 April 1945), was born in Alba, Cuneo, Kingdom of Italy.

A Dominican priest, he was an opponent of the Italian Fascist Government of Benito Mussolini, and protector of Jews from the Nazi Holocaust. Girotti died at Dachau Concentration Camp in 1945 after he was imprisoned. He was declared Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1995 and recognised as a Catholic martyr and declared Venerable by Pope Francis on 27 March 2013.^[1][2][3][4]

Girotti was ordained to the priesthood in 1930 and he - after ordination - studied Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in Rome and the École Biblique in Jerusalem under the guidance of Marie-Joseph Lagrange.^[5]

According to the Jerusalem Post, Girotti worked as a theology professor at the Saint Maria della Rose Dominican Seminary in Turin. Following the Nazi occupation of Italy in 1943, he saved many Jews by arranging safe hideouts and escape routes from Italy. Caught in the act of assisting a wounded Jew, Girotti was arrested on 29 August 1944, and sent to Dachau Concentration Camp. He died at the camp on 1 April 1945.^[6]

Girotti was beatified on 26 April 2014 by Cardinal Angelo Amato on behalf of Pope Francis. His memorial feast day was assigned on 1 April, the day of his death.

See also

• Priest Barracks of Dachau Concentration Camp
• Catholic resistance to Nazi Germany
• Rescue of Jews by Catholics during the Holocaust

References

External links

• Servant of God Giuseppe Girotti at Dominican Friars Province of St Joseph website.
• Giuseppe Girotti – his activity to save Jews' lives during the Holocaust, at Yad Vashem website