IFTTT Autopost 
Alfredo Cremonesi was born in Ripalta Guerina, Cremona, Kingdom of Italy, firstborn of seven children. His father, Enrico Cremonesi, was a grocer, and his mother, Maria Rosa Scartabellati, was a homemaker. Both Enrico and Maria Rosa were strong in their Catholic faith.
As a child, Alfredo received a solid foundation in his faith from his mother who taught religious education to her children. Alfredo’s father, who was strongly anti-Fascist, contributed to Alfredo’s eventual worldview also. Little did the family know that on a fateful day in 1945, Alfredo’s brother Ernesto would be killed by Nazi Fascists in one of Hitler’s concentration camps.
As a youth, Alfredo dreamt of becoming a foreign missionary, but because of a disease from which physicians thought he would die in a few months, that dream seemed doomed. Alfredo, however, had a strong devotion to Saint Therese of Lisieux, the “Little Flower,” that he developed as a child from reading her autobiography. Fortunately, Alfredo regained his good health, and this he attributed, in part, to the Little Flower’s intervention. Along with a strong devotion to the Little Flower, Alfredo had a deep love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
With his new-found health, Alfredo entered the seminary of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) on September 17, 1922. As a seminarian, Alfredo became known as a gifted writer who published a collection of poems. He was also seen as “impetuous,” a trait that would show up throughout his life.
In October 1924, Alfredo was ordained a priest, and in June of 1925, he learned that he was being sent to Burma (modern-day Myanmar). He set sail on October 16, 1925, from Naples and arrived in British-run Burma on November 10, 1925.
His first assignment was to an isolated mountain village of Yedashé. He made some converts in the town and other villages miles from the central village.
Later, he was transferred to Donokù where he was able to practice his ministry in peace until World War II broke out. Because Burma was British-run, and because Italy was supporting the Axis nations such as Germany against the Ally nations such as Britain the United States, Father Alfredo, as an Italian, was suddenly seen as an enemy. This led him to transfer to Moshò, a distance north of Donokù.
In 1945, Father Alfredo learned that his brother Ernesto had died in a Nazi concentration camp. Upon learning that his brother Ernesto had died, Alfredo wrote to his parents. He said how proud he was to be Ernesto’s brother, and he wrote, “Ernesto will be able to do more in paradise than he could have done on earth.”
As the war dragged on, however, Father Alfredo was forced to flee into the forests. In a letter dated February 20, 1946, he wrote about his life in the forest, eating herbs and possessing only the clothes he was wearing. He noted that village marketplaces were abandoned, and the people had fled. Once he was captured by Japanese soldiers, but mysteriously they let him go instead of sending him to a prison.
Throughout his mission life in Burma, Father Alfredo kept in contact with his superior, Father Paolo Manna (now Blessed Paolo).
After the war, peace did not immediately descend on the land. Somehow, the soldiers, who had previously been ambushed by armed rebels, believed that Father Alfredo was part of the rebels. So, they shot and killed Father Alfredo on February 7, 1953.
When the villagers returned from hiding the next day, they cut off some of Father Alfredo’s beard and parts of his bloodied shirt and sent it to the P.I.M.E. Fathers with a note that said, “Relics of the martyr Father Cremonesi to be sent to his parents.”
Father Alfredo was beatified on October 19, 2019. Blessed Alfredo’s feast day is February 7. He is one of the patron saints of missionaries.
