Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, will beatify this Sunday, September 27 in Bologna three priests murdered in 1944 during the Monte Sole massacres: diocesan priest Ubaldo Marchioni, Salesian Elia Comini, and Dehonian Martino Capelli.
The Mass will be celebrated at 4:00 p.m. in the Basilica of San Petronio and will be presided over by Semeraro as papal delegate. According to Agencia SIR, the Archbishop of Bologna, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, will concelebrate along with other bishops and priests, including the Superior General of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Father Carlos Luis Suárez Codorniú, and the Rector Major of the Salesians, Father Fabio Attard.
The three new blesseds exercised their ministry in the Bolognese Apennines during the final months of the Second World War and remained with the population when the area was caught between German troops and the Resistance. Their deaths occurred during the massacres perpetrated by the SS in Monte Sole between late September and early October 1944.
The Church has recognized their deaths as true martyrdom. In Marchioni’s case, the decree promulgated by Leo XIV on November 21, 2025, expressly states that he was killed “for his fidelity to Christ and to the Church” and declares the martyrdom in odium fidei proven.
Ubaldo Marchioni, murdered before the altar
Ubaldo Marchioni was born on May 19, 1918 in Vimignano di Grizzana Morandi and was ordained a priest on June 28, 1942 in the Cathedral of San Pietro in Bologna. Among his ordination classmates was Giovanni Fornasini, also murdered in Monte Sole and beatified as a martyr in 2021.
In 1944 he was assigned as parish priest to San Martino di Caprara, a territory located near the Gothic Line. The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints highlights that he attended to his parishioners without distinction of political positions and decided to remain with them despite knowing the danger and “the anti-Christian hatred of the SS.”
On the morning of September 29, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, Marchioni set out for the Oratory of the Guardian Angels in Cerpiano, where he was to celebrate Mass for the children of the kindergarten. Passing by the Church of Santa Maria Assunta di Casaglia, he found around a hundred people, mainly women and children, seeking refuge from the advance of Nazi-fascist forces.
Marchioni ushered them into the church, advised the adult men and young people to take refuge in the woods, and decided to stay with those who remained. While waiting, he began to pray the Rosary with them and exhorted them to trust in God.
When the soldiers burst into the church, the priest tried to protect the civilians, but all were forced to leave and taken to the nearby cemetery, where they would be massacred.
Marchioni initially went with them, until a young SS officer ordered him to be separated from the group and taken back to the church. He was shot dead on the altar predella. Afterwards, his executioners attempted to burn the body and set fire to the church. He was 26 years old.
The circumstances of his death led to a change in the course of his beatification cause. Originally initiated super virtutibus, in 2021 it was switched to super martyrio. After the favorable opinion of historians and theologians, the cardinals and bishops of the Dicastery determined in November 2025 that he had died for his fidelity to Christ and to the Church. Leo XIV confirmed that conclusion three days later and formally recognized his martyrdom out of hatred for the faith.
Comini and Capelli remained to assist the victims
Salesian Elia Comini and Dehonian Martino Capelli shared the decision to continue their ministry in the area when violence descended upon Monte Sole.
Comini was born in Calvenzano di Vergato in 1910 and was ordained a priest in 1935. Capelli, born in Nembro in 1912 under the name Nicola, belonged to the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and received priestly ordination in 1938.
In the summer of 1944 both were in the Bolognese Apennines providing pastoral assistance. When the massacres began, they went to help the population and the wounded spiritually. They were detained by German troops and remained prisoners until October 1.
That day they were taken with dozens of detainees to Botte di Salvaro, where they were murdered. Testimonies about their final hours show both exercising priestly ministry until the end, praying and accompanying those awaiting death.
Comini’s martyrdom was recognized by Pope Francis in December 2024. Capelli’s was recognized later by Leo XIV, who authorized the corresponding decree on November 21, 2025, the same day as Marchioni’s.
The priests of Monte Sole
The deaths of the three priests occurred during the Monte Sole massacres, a series of SS operations against numerous localities in the Bolognese Apennines. The offensive aimed to eliminate the presence of the partisans of the Stella Rossa brigade behind the Gothic Line, but ultimately fell upon the civilian population, accused of collaborating with the Resistance.
Monte Sole was also marked by the testimony of several priests who remained with their communities. Among them was Giovanni Fornasini, friend and seminary companion of Marchioni. A few days before the massacres, Fornasini had drafted his will and designated precisely Marchioni as executor. Both would ultimately be murdered within a few days of each other.
The beatification on Sunday will be preceded this Saturday by a meeting at the Franciscan Festival dedicated to the martyred communities of Monte Sole and by a prayer vigil at 8:45 p.m. in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Bologna.
Commemorations will continue on Tuesday, September 29 in Creda and Botte di Salvaro, with acts in memory of Comini and Capelli. That same afternoon a Way of the Cross will be celebrated from the ruins of Santa Maria Assunta di Casaglia, the place where Marchioni was murdered.
“The memory of the martyred priests of Monte Sole does not belong only to the past, but opens to the future,” Cardinal Zuppi has stated, pointing in their testimony to a path of fraternity, peace, and fidelity.