Antonio Maria Zaccaria (1502–1539)

Biography

He soon lost his father. He had a very pious mother, who even refused a new marriage to dedicate herself more to her son's education. From her he learned solid piety, austerity and charity. He distinguished himself from a very young age for his compassion towards the needy and helpless. It was this that moved him to study medicine in Padua. In this way he would heal the sick, especially the poorest, and would take the opportunity to instruct them in religion and attend to the salvation of souls. His piety and generosity awakened in him the priestly vocation. Thus, its delivery would be more complete. His love for the Virgin, to whom he had consecrated his virginity, also greatly influenced this decision. The future apostle and reformer aspired above all to reproduce the image of the apostle Paul, a great lover of Christ. At the age of 26 he was ordained a priest, with his soul full of plans for the glory of God. In the year 1533 he founded in Milan, with two other priests, a congregation called "Clergymen of Saint Paul", to help those in need. His apostolate, more than its eloquence, was distinguished by the austerity and mortification of its life. He also founded a women's congregation, so that they would dedicate themselves to the protection and relief of young women in danger. Saint Charles Borromeo used it for the reform of the monasteries, praising it so much that he called it "The most precious jewel of his miter." For barely eleven years he was able to exercise his priesthood, but with such intensity, with such charity and zeal, that he deserved to be called "the Angel of Cremona and the Father of the Country." The Eucharist and the Passion of the Lord were the devotions that he most ardently tried to instill in the Christian people, and certain practices that he introduced still persist, such as the pious remembrance of the Passion and Death of the Lord, at the stroke of three in the afternoon on every Friday, and the practice of forty hours of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Saint Anthony Mary gave his soul to God in the year 1539, at 37 years of age. He was canonized by Leo XIII in 1890.