On January 27, Pope Francis declared Father Quintino Sicuro a Servant of God, recognizing his heroic virtues. Born on May 29, 1920, into a devout farming family in the southern Italian region of Puglia, little Quintino expressed his desire to enter the religious life as early as elementary school but failed the entrance exam. He headed for the technical-industrial institute of Gallipoli... which he left before completing his training, choosing to enlist in the Guardia di Finanza, the Italian equivalent of the border police.
After fighting on the Balkan front at the outbreak of the Second World War, young Quintino joined the anti-fascist resistance. He was captured and imprisoned but managed to make a remarkable escape. Disguised as a priest, he bicycled to Southern Italy, then under Allied control.
Marriage, or religious life?
In the immediate aftermath of the war, the Guardia di Finanza sub-brigadier returned to duty. The charming young man had many romantic adventures, becoming engaged to Silvia, a young teacher whom he planned to marry. But the spiritual passion of his childhood returned. In 1947, he joined the Franciscan friars at Ascoli-Piceno. However, his vocation was once again thwarted: his experience in the religious community lasted only two years.
In 1949, he decided to experience solitude and radical self-denial in a hermitage in Montegallo, in the province of Marche. Then, four years later, he moved to another even more isolated hermitage on Mount Fumaiolo.
It was here that he finally found his true vocation. This atypical monk, who slept on stone and fed on herbs, rebuilt the ruined hermitage with his own hands and received visitors who appreciated his spiritual guidance.
He received the support of the bishop of Sarsina, who ordained him to the priesthood in 1959. That finally provided him, at nearly 40 years of age, with the theological training and canonical framework he had never been able to find during his tormented spiritual quest. In thanksgiving, Father Quintino Sicuro made a pilgrimage to Lourdes on foot.
Wise counsel from an unclassifiable man
The hermit, now a priest, was never assigned to a parish. Nevertheless, his unique vocation was recognized and supported by his diocese. In the 1960s, many parish priests in the region sent him young people on a spiritual quest, whom he charitably received to hear their confessions. He invited them to “stand before God like a simple man: without ideas, but with living faith.”
“Detain yourself in an act of love before the Father. Don't try to reach God through intelligence; you'll never get there. Reach him through love; it's possible,” urged this priest who had found his way to God by winding paths.
Father Quintino Sicuro collapsed in the snow on the morning of December 26, 1968, struck down by a heart attack at just 48 years of age. He had been about to bless a new ski lift infrastructure due to be inaugurated that very day. This unusual monk, who had dug his own grave with his own hands near his hermitage, now rests on the mountain where he had dedicated the last years of his life.
The Diocese of Cesena and Sarsina introduced his cause for beatification in 1985, and 40 years later it has taken a major step forward. Recognition of his “heroic virtues” does not, however, automatically pave the way for his beatification. The dicastery for the Causes of Saints will still have to formally identify a miracle attributed to his intercession, a process that could take several more years — or even decades.
