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Ettore Boschini was born on March 25, 1928 into a family of wealthy farmers in Belvedere, a hamlet of Roverbella in the northern Italian province of Mantua. When he was only four, his family suffered financial setbacks due to agricultural crises in the area at that time. As a result, the family had to leave their home and move to another location.
As a child, Ettore had to leave school to help earn money for his family. He did this by working in a stable.
On January 6, 1952, when he was twenty-four, Ettore entered the Congregation of the Ministers of the Infirm, more commonly known as the Camillian Fathers and Brothers after their founder, Saint Camillus de Lellis. In the order, Ettore was a lay brother. After his novitiate, he made took the three traditional religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. And, like other Camillian religious, he made a fourth vow, to consecrate his life to the service of the sick, even in the danger of death.
Brother Ettore’s first assignment was as a nurse in the Alberoni community in Venice. In the 1970s, however, he was transferred to the San Camillo community of Milan, Italy. There, he discovered a variety of people who society rejected. These included the homeless, the misfits, alcoholics, drug addicts, the sick, the rejected.
Soon, Brother Ettore began inviting those who needed his help to come to his San Camillo Clinic. In a very short time, however, word spread quickly on the street, that Brother Ettore was someone who loved the poor and marginalized of society and could help them. Soon, Brother Ettore had more people than he could handle by himself. To assist Brother Ettore in his work, his superiors gave him permission to direct all of his efforts as a Camillian and nurse, to serve his “flock.”
One of Brother Ettore’s first actions was to form a shelter in the basement of Central Station in Milan. This brought those in need to a central location where he could better serve them. Not only did he provide them with a place they could be safe and treated with respect, it was also a place where they could get food. Like any competent nurse, Brother Ettore sought to care for his patients’ physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Brother Ettore founded other such shelters all over Italy and in other countries.
As a result of Brother Ettore’s work, other organizations were formed to carry on similar work. One of the most successful is called City Angels, an international organization that serves not only the homeless and others most in need, but also their pets. City Angels started their organization in Brother Ettore’s first shelter in Central Station in Milan.
Brother Ettore and his work have been honored by civic and religious leaders, including Mother Teresa of Calcutta who visited Brother Ettore’s first shelter in Milan.
Brother Ettore Boschini died on August 20, 2004 and left his close collaborator, Sister Teresa Martino, as the leader of the communities he founded. Today, there are many books and articles written about Brother Ettore, most of which are in Italian. Some of the poor who Brother Ettore served, wrote and staged a puppet show about his life called, “Ettore of the poor” that debuted in 2012 in Rimini, Italy.
In February 2013, the Lombard Bishop’s Conference began the investigation into the cause for beatification of Brother Ettore. Now, he is known as Servant of God Ettore Boschini.
