Saint of the Month: St. Artemede Zatti

 St. Artemede Zatti was a devoted lay brother, nurse, and pharmacist. Artemede was born in 1880 to Louis and Albina Zatti at Boretto in the northern Italian province of Reggio Emilia. The Zattis were very devout but poor farmers. They were hard-working people and taught their children that same virtue. Artemede began to work at age nine for a farmer in the fields. He discontinued attending school when he was twelve and continued to work until he was sixteen. The Zattis had a relative who had emigrated to Argentina, and thinking that they could escape their crippling poverty, they followed him there, arriving at Buenos Aires in 1897. Artemede’s uncle had a good job at Bahía Blanca supervising immigrant farmworkers. Artemede obtained steady employment there, working various jobs in the fields and selling produce, in a restaurant, a hotel, and at a brick factory.

INTEREST IN THE SALESIANS

 The family belonged to a parish operated by the Society of St. Francis de Sales, known as the Salesians. Inspired by the life of its founder John Bosco (who was not yet beatified), Artemede wished to join the order and become a priest. He entered the Salesians at age nineteen at Bernal. During his novitiate, he volunteered to take care of a priest who was dying of tuberculosis and caught the dreaded disease himself in 1901. He became seriously ill, and his superiors decided to send him to the Andes, where the higher elevations would be better for his health. He departed Bernal very sick and feeling like a failure.

A SETBACK, MARIAN INTERCESSION, AND A NEW MISSION

Artemede met a Salesian priest, Father Carlo Cavalli, who thought the young man should instead be at Viedma in the Patagonian plains, and where the Salesians had a house with a small (70 bed) missionary hospital. He arranged for Artemede to go there for formation as a secular (lay) Salesian. Artemede did recover, which he attributed to the intercession of the Virgin Mary under the title Our Lady, Help of Christians. He had never enjoyed excellent health before, but after his recovery, he became inexplicably robust. He came under the mentorship of Father Evasio Garrone, a former army nurse/medic, who was operating the hospital. Artemede resumed his Salesian formation, learned to speak Spanish, and in the spring of 1903, began working at the dispensary. He earned a diploma from the University of La Plata in “idoneo”, a type of hybrid pharmacy degree that permitted him to practice medicine under limited circumstances. He also obtained a degree in nursing. In 1911, he made his perpetual profession.

SELFLESS DEDICATION

When Father Garrone died in 1911, Brother Artemede succeeded him as head of the hospital and dispensary. He served as not only a nurse, pharmacist, and surgery assistant, but he was hospital administrator as well. The hospital was operated as a charity hospital, and those who could pay did, but no one was ever turned away, and most patients could pay little or nothing. His typical workday began at 4:30 a.m. and did not end until 11 p.m. In addition to daily Mass and prayer, he would ride his bicycle to visit the sick in their homes. His afternoons were spent in the hospital and his nights in Scripture and medical studies and in prayer. He was known to answer sick calls at any hour of the day or night, for which he did not charge. He would often sing to his patients and was known to possess a delightful sense of humor. He also regularly rode his bicycle to the wealthy districts of town to beg for funds to keep the hospital afloat, reciting his Rosary while riding. The only thing resembling a vacation that he ever took was a five day stay in jail due to the escape of a sick prisoner that he was responsible for. He became an Argentinian citizen in 1914, and beginning in 1915, published a weekly religious periodical called Flores Del Campo.

HEROIC VIRTUE

Brother Artemede had a special love for the founder of his order [St.] John Bosco, and like him, took special interest in young patients, especially the mentally and physically handicapped. When Don Bosco was canonized in Rome in 1934, the Patagonian Salesian brothers chose him as a delegate to attend. He returned with a first-class relic, which he often used in his ministry to his young patients. In July of 1950, he fell from a ladder while doing a repair, was injured, and hospitalized. During his convalescence, he was diagnosed with liver cancer. He resisted the doctor’s advice to rest, but continued to work, not wanting to waste any of his little remaining time. He died at his beloved hospital on March 15, 1951 at age seventy. His remains lie in the chapel of the Salesian house in Viedma.
St. Artemede Zatti was respected by physicians and loved by patients. His forty years of sincere care and his selfless commitment to his work endeared him to all. He was often known to remark that he saw the face of Christ in the suffering. After his death, the people of Viedma had a monument made in his honor, and there is a public hospital there that bears his name. He was canonized in 2022.