Ex-Postulator General

On Thurday, 16 October, a Requiem Mass was celebrated in the General House in thanksgiving for the life of Br Giovanni Bigotto, Postulator General from 2001 to 2011.

Br Giovanni passed away on the 12th, in Carmagnola, Italy. After the Mass celebrated by the community there, the body was brought to Rome to lie in state in the main chapel of the General House until being interred in the pantheon of the Brothers in the cemetery of Verano in Rome.

The chapel was completely full, since those attending included the various groups in residence at this time: the new provincials, the Brothers of the Third Age course and the European group taking part in the meeting on New Models, as well as Brothers from Italy, members of the General Administration, and some family members.

The celebration was introduced by the Br Provincial of Madagascar, Sylvain Ramandimbiarisoa, who recorded the Marist career of Br Giovanni. At the end, before the body was taken to Verano, Br Emili Turú, Superior General, expressed thanks to the Province of Madagascar, to which he belonged, and the Province of Mediterránea, which hosted him in the last months of his life, and in particular, Brs Pietro Bettin and Onorino Rota, together with the community of Carmagnola, for the care they had taken of the Brother in his final months.

Thanks to the 10 years he spent as Postulator General, the Institute received from Br Giovanni a strong impulse towards the recognition of the value of the exemplary lives of our Brothers distinguished for a life of sanctity. His writings on the Marist saints transmit this to the whole Institute and invite us to follow their example, in order to realize the dream of Marcellin Champagnat today.

 Other details of the life of Br Giovanni Bigotto are available on the page of his necrology.