Every March 15 we celebrate San Artémides Zatti, Patron of Nurses and Pharmacists

Every March 15, the Catholic Church celebrates San Artémides Zatti (1880-1951), Salesian coadjutor and an italo-Argentine nurse, who dedicated his life to serve Christ present in the patient. The Salesian family celebrates it on November 13.

The Apostolic Service of San Artémides developed in Argentina, a South American country that welcomed him as one of his children after having arrived from Italy. Pope Francis, decades ago, when he was still Fr. Bergoglio SJ, had the opportunity to know from Zatti and ask for a “favor”: to intercede before God by a special grace, which was later granted.

San Artémides Zatti is the employer of nurses and pharmacists.

Artémides, the immigrant

Artémides Zatti was born in Boretto (Italy), in 1880, within a peasant family. At nine years old, I already worked in the small family farm. However, this was very poor and all the family’s efforts seemed insufficient to obtain the necessary resources to live. For this reason, the Zatti decided to emigrate to Argentina and start there a new life.

Already established in South America, Artémides began to frequent a Salesian parish. In this, the vocational concern sprouted, feeling attracted to the lifestyle and spirituality of the congregation founded by San Juan Bosco. Years later, he would be accepted as an aspiring and, when he turned twenty, he entered the house of the Order in Bernal.

A promise made to the Virgin, María Auxiliadora

As Salesiano coadjtor, Artémides was entrusted with the care of a young priest who is sick with tuberculosis. Unfortunately, while taking care of this, he infected himself, and thought that perhaps he would not survive, since at that time tuberculosis was almost always a deadly disease. As his medical picture worsened, the saint had to be hospitalized. While at the Salesian Mission Hospital in Viedma, Brother Zatti promised in his prayers Maria Auxiliadora that if he was cured, he would dedicate the rest of his life to the care of the sick.

In the subsequent days, Artémides began to feel better to the point where the symptoms disappeared completely. Retrieved, he made himself available to the hospital that had housed him and the pharmacy was commissioned. His great service capacity and the ability to organize allowed him to assume more and more responsibilities. Finally, Artémides ended up in charge of the entire health institution. The Holy Nurse was sure that the Virgin Mary had taken her word committed during the disease. The message seemed very clear: God called him to take care of the sick.

Then, Artémides continued on the path that God was drawing: he shared his time between the hard work in the hospital and the obligations in the Salesian community. His permanent enthusiasm and thrust began to be known by all. During the day, he was seen by bicycle, on the way to visit the patients of the city; while at night I studied hard to get the nurse diploma.

Brother coadjutor and nurse

“Don Zatti” – as people called him – was an example of good treatment of people, very skilled to “infect” the joy of living and serving. He used to tell the hospital medical body – diseases, doctors, administrative – things that helped connect responsibilities with their deepest sense, with its spiritual dimension: “Prepare a bed for the Lord,” he could say, or, “do you have hot soup and dresses for a 10 -year -old Jesus?”

That special way of referring to the sick lit the hearts of the hospital workers, and it was proof of how their noble soul understood pain, always with Christ occupying the central place. Because for the Salesian in every man who suffers is Christ suffering again with him. Thus, with that joy and goodness, he won the love of so many. People said: “He is an angel who became a nurse.”

Be born in a new life

Being close to seventy years, Brother Artémides suffered an accident: it fell violently along a ladder. Then, for security, a set of exams was applied that threw an unexpected finding: Don Zatti suffered liver cancer. Even under those conditions, it was barely possible, he returned to his work and managed to continue his service for one more year.

Finally, already very weakened, he died on March 15, 1951. Pope San Juan Pablo II beatified him in 2002 and Pope Francis recently canonized him, on October 9, 2022. In that ceremony the Italian bishop Juan Bautista Scalabrini, founder of the Missionaries of San Carlos (Escabrinians) would also be declared holy.

“Friendship” with Pope Francis

On May 18, 1986, then P. Jorge Mario Bergoglio wrote a letter to the Salesian priest Bruno Cayetano to tell him about the experience he had with Don Zatti “with whom I became very friendly”.

In the letter, Pope Francis reported how the Argentine Jesuits, and in general the entire company of Jesus, had few vocations for coadjores. And, how, in that context, I had heard of the life of Artémides Zatti, something that led him to read a biography about him. “His full coadjutor figure caught my attention. From there, without more, I felt that I had to ask the Lord, for the intercession of that great coadjutor, sent us vocations of coadjectors. I did novenas and asked the novices to do them, ”said Fr. Bergoglio in that letter.

Those prayers, in the long run, bore fruits in the numerous vocations to coadjores who began to be received by the Jesuits in the successive years.

The then P. Bergoglio had closed the famous letter with these words: “I am convinced of its intercession (that of Don Zatti) in this matter, since by the number it is a rare case in the company. In recognition, in the 2nd. and 3rd. edition of Devotionary of the Sacred Heart We have put the novena to ask for the canonization of Don Zatti. ”