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Father Ottavio Posta was honoured, as he was given posthumously the title of Righteous Among the Nations.
Father Ottavio Posta saved 30 Jews who had been prisoners in the castle on Isola Maggiore, an island on Lake Trasimeno, in central Italy.
Doctor Isabella Farinelli discovered a number of documents in which Jews who escaped deportation told of the help that the parish priest of Isola Maggiore had given them.
A letter sent on August 23, 1944 which was sent to the archbishop of Perugia explains what he achieved.
Father Posta, “was of great help and consolation to us during the period in which we were prisoners on the island because of the racial laws,” the letter reads. “When danger was threatening primarily because of the threats of the Germans against us, with a truly paternal and generous gesture he not only induced the islanders to transport us to the shore where the English already were, but he himself faced with us the danger of crossing the lake, under cannon and machine gun fire, giving a brilliant example to his parishioners and meriting our most profound gratitude.
“We would be most grateful to Your Excellency if with your word you made yourself the spokesman of our gratitude to the distinguished Father Ottavio Posta for his altruistic act, an act of a Good Shepherd of the unfortunate oppressed by inhuman laws.”
The letter was signed by Bice Todros Ottolenghi, Giuliano Coen, Albertina Coen and Livia Coen
Archbishop Gualtiero Bassetti, the current archbishop of Perugia, spoke of Father Posta as a priest who “lived his priestly ministry in poverty, sharing the little he had with the needy.”
Full Story: ZENIT
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