‘It is strange to be writing some words of introduction to a book on a religious brother who has just died and with whom you had many personal conversations and whom you admired a great deal. I feel privileged that I knew him and that he came to ask for my advice. In recent days we have heard Cardinal Martini refer to him as a ‘giant of contemporary charity who honours the Gospel’. Newspapers, television and radio have given a great deal of space to his death and in narrating his life all of us have had before us an extraordinary figure. I seem to hear him say: ‘But am I not a poor man, God’s burro?”’

This is how Fr. Frank Monks, the former Superior General of the Order of the Ministers of the Sick began his presentation of the book Fratel Ettore – Un gigante della carità (by Pelucchi, G., Ed. Paoline, 2004).

Today is the anniversary of the day Brother Ettore Boschini went to heaven. He was an example of the Camillian charism that was one of the greatest of recent history and his was a life dedicated to the poorest, to the sick and to the suffering, and this was united with a very deep humility of spirit.

To know more about the history and the work of Br. Ettore and his heirs click here.