Father Nazareno Lanciotti (1940-2001), an Italian missionary who was national director of the Marian Movement of Priests in Brazil, was beatified as a martyr on June 13.
Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, presided at the Mass of beatification, which took place at the Parish of Our Lady of the Pillar in Jauru, the small town where Father Lanciotti ministered for three decades.
“He was Marian and Eucharistic, loved hearing confessions, and practiced great penance,” said Otávio Piva, lay representative of the Marian Movement of Priests in Brazil. “Our spirituality of littleness, spiritual childhood, consecration to the Heart of Mary, and total trustful abandonment to God—these were all characteristics he embodied.”
Vatican News reported that Father Lanciotti combatted drug trafficking and prostitution. He was shot by two men who opposed his work and forgave his attackers before he died.