At Padua in Italy, Blessed Claudius (Richard) Granzotto, religious of the Order of Friars Minor, who joined the practice of the religious life with the art of sculpture and within a few years attained perfection in the imitation of Christ.
Lifespan: 1900–1947
Beatified: 20 November 1994 by Pope John Paul II
Memoria liturgica: 15 August
“It is more important to me to be a good religious than a skilled artist.”
Claudio Granzotto
Claudio Granzotto (in the world, Riccardo Vittorio) was born at Santa Lucia di Piave (Treviso) on 23 August 1900, the last of nine children. From his family he learned the fear of God, sincere practice of the Christian life, generous solidarity, readiness for sacrifice, and love of the hard work of the fields.
Thanks to his docility to the Spirit and the formative power of that family upbringing, Claudio Granzotto’s earthly life became a constant pilgrimage toward holiness, rising to the heights of evangelical perfection.
A true son of the Poor Man of Assisi, he was able to express his contemplation of the infinite beauty of God through the art of sculpture—of which he was a master—making it a privileged instrument of apostolate and evangelization. His holiness shone most brightly in his acceptance of suffering and death in union with the cross of Christ.
He has thus become a model: for religious, in the total consecration of self to the love of the Lord; for artists, in the search for the Beauty of God; and for the sick, in loving adherence to the Crucified.