Fr Elia Comini was born in the locality of ‘Madonna del Bosco’ in Calvenzano di Vergato (BO) on 7 May 1910. Monsignor Fidenzio Mellini, a former pupil of Don Bosco in Turin, directed him to the Salesians of Finale Emilia. Elia became a novice on 1 October 1925, made his first profession on 3 October 1926 and his perpetual profession on 8 May 1931. Ordained a priest in Brescia on 16 March 1935, the Servant of God lived in the Salesian houses in Chiari (in the province of Brescia, until 1941) and Treviglio (in the province of Bergamo, from 1941 to 1944). In the summer of 1944, he returned for a few periods to the Bologna Apennines to assist his mother, who was now elderly and alone, and to help Monsignor Fidenzio Mellini in his pastoral work. He arrived in Salvaro on 24 June. He remained there for just over three months, until his death. He helped the population with their many practical needs dictated by wartime, animated the liturgy and promoted the reception of the sacraments; he supported the consecrated women and lived an intense apostolate in the exercise of all works of corporal and spiritual mercy. He also mediated between the opposing sides: the population, the partisans, and the Germans of the Wehrmacht who were stationed in the presbytery for a month (1 August – 1 September 1944).

The Servant of God established a priestly fraternity with the young Dehonian Fr Martino Capelli, which united them in ministry and martyrdom. On the morning of 29 September 1944, Fr Elia rushed with Fr Martino to “Creda”, a village where the SS of a battalion of the 16th Armoured Division had just perpetrated a massacre: their stoles, holy oils and tabernacle with some Eucharistic hosts clearly identified them as priests in the exercise of their ministry of comforting the dying. Captured, stripped of their priestly insignia, and used as pack animals to transport ammunition, Fr Elia and Fr Martino experienced intense suffering that day. Transferred in the evening to the “casa dei birocciai” (house of the carters) in Pioppe di Salvaro, they lived through two intense days, convinced from the outset that they were destined to die, yet remaining close to the prisoners. On the evening of 1 October 1944, they were killed in the group of “unfit” prisoners at the Botte della canapiera in Pioppe di Salvaro, at the end of a surreal liturgy in which the SS had paraded the prisoners along a walkway before mowing them down with machine guns: Fr Elia intoned the Litany and finally cried out “Pietà!” (Mercy!). Unable to recover the bodies, the grids were subsequently opened and the impetuous current of the Reno river carried away those poor, already consumed remains forever.

Fr Ubaldo Marchioni was an exemplary priest and faithful to his community even in the most tragic moments of the Second World War. After years of formation and deep friendships in the seminary, he became a priest in 1942 and was parish priest in San Martino di Caprara and Casaglia from May 1944. During the Nazi massacre of 29 September of that year, he remained with his parishioners until his violent death on the steps of the altar in Casaglia. It was among the rubble of that altar that a bullet-riddled ciborium was found, a symbol of faith and martyrdom.

‘Fr Elia Comini, Fr Martino Capelli, Fr Ubaldo Marchioni, together with Blessed Giovanni Fornasini,’ recalls Fr Pierluigi Cameroni, Postulator General, ‘are young priests who embodied the charity of the Good Shepherd, giving their lives for their flock and with their flock, faithful ministers of the mysteries of redemption, artisans of peace, justice and reconciliation.’