Arcangelo Tadini

Arcangelo Tadini was born on 12 October 1846 in Verolanuova in Brescia as the last of four children born to the nobles Pietro Tadini and Antonia Gadola. His father had previous children with his previous wife Giulia Gadola (Antonia's sister) until her death thus making Tadini the eleventh child his father sired.[4] His father had seven children with his first wife and after her death tried to manage his children from 1829 with his sister-in-law's aid whom he married on 10 July 1838. Tadini was baptized in the San Lorenzo Martire church in his hometown on 18 October 1846 with his godparents being Giambattista Scolari and Caterina Gadola.[3]

Tadini's father Pietro was born in Brescia on 15 February 1790 and married his first wife Giulia Gadola on 6 July 1819 and who was born on 28 September 1801. Tadini's own mother Antonia (born in 1806) was 32 upon her marriage to Pietro and in 1848 she became a volunteer nurse. His father Pietro died on 1 January 1860 and his mother died on 23 December 1880.[3]

He suffered from a grave illness that almost killed him when he was two but he rallied and survived. He attended school in his hometown until he was ten and in 1855 attended another school where his brothers Alessandro and Giulio attended.[4] His two brothers studied for the priesthood but Giulio became a priest while Alessandro did not due to being expelled due to his political beliefs. Tadini's vocation to the priesthood grew over time but became more concrete when he attended his brother Giulio's first Mass and subsequent exposure to his activities as a priest. Giulio would later die in 1909.[3]

Tadini commenced his theological and philosophical studies for the priesthood in Brescia in 1864. He suffered an accident during his studies that left him having a lifelong limp due to the inadequacies of treatment for the accident that saw his knee broken.[1] Tadini received ordination to the priesthood on 19 June 1870 from the Prince-Bishop of Trento Benedetto Riccabona de Reichelfels since the current Bishop of Brescia Girolamo Verzieri was in Rome for the First Vatican Council. Tadini celebrated his first Mass as a priest on 26 June 1870 in his hometown. He was looking forward to his duties as a priest but a serious illness forced him to reside with his relatives from 1870 to 1871 as he recovered.[4][3] Upon that he was made the curate for Lodrino in Val Trompia (and a schoolteacher for children) and he held that position from 29 June 1871 until 27 May 1873 when he was made the curate for the Santa Maria della Noce shrine near Brescia. It was there that he was noted for his attentiveness to the material and spiritual needs of his parishioners and his care of refugees. It was also there that he organized a soup kitchen that would serve hundreds after intense flooding caused a great deal of people to become homeless. In 1885 he was appointed as the curate for Botticino Sera (arriving there that 29 November) to aid the ailing parish priest Giacomo Coresti and then became its parish priest in 1887 following Cortesi's death on 26 November 1886; he was undergoing treatment for his leg in Albano when he received this news on 20 July 1887.[1][2][4] He held that position for the remainder of his life and there organized catechesis lessons for various age groups.

He revitalized parish initiatives that all had a pastoral focus at their heart and he founded what became known as the Workers' Mutual Aid Association in 1893 which was a form of social insurance for the ill and injured as well as the aged. He also used his inheritance to build a spinning mill in 1898 that hired women and used the profits to establish a residence for them.[1][2][4] Tadini also founded his own religious congregation in 1900 consisted of women and their role was to help the women in factories and also to provide them with an education. This proved a bit scandalous for the time since factories were considered to be immoral and dangerous places.[5] In his parish he allowed the Third Order of Saint Francis to settle there and he also praised Pope Leo XIII for having issued Rerum Novarum. His Jesuit friend and priest Maffeo Franzini helped him revive the Secular Ursulines in his parish and so Franzini sent from Milan the former Canossian religious Leopoldina Paris to aid him in this. But this was short lived as Paris did not share Tadini's vision and so left him.[4]

Later in life he was forced to use a cane due to the limp he suffered which became worse over time due to his advancing age; he was later forced to use a wheelchair and was wheeled to a 21 March 1912 Mass that commemorated his entrance as a parish priest for that church. He alluded during the Mass that "I will not live much longer" as his failing health was getting worse over time on a gradual level. He was celebrating Mass on 8 May 1912 when he was taken ill after being struck with an illness and on 9 May received both the Anointing of the Sick and the Viaticum from his confessor.[4] Tadini died in his bed on 20 May at 5:00am; his funeral as celebrated the following morning. His remains were exhumed on 11 March 1943 and again on 24 May 1999; the remains were exhumed for the final time on 29 October 2009 just after he was canonized and moved to the parish of Santa Maria Assunta in Botticino Sera now made a minor basilica. His order now operates in countries across the world such as Burundi and the United Kingdom. He had died without his order having received full approval; the Bishop of Brescia Giacinto Gaggia issued diocesan approval on 30 November 1931 while Pope Pius XII issued the decree of praise on 12 January 1953. Pope John XXIII issued papal approval a decade later on 16 March 1962.[4]

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