25 Facts About Cosma Spessotto

Cosma Spessotto, OFM was an Italian Catholic priest of the Order of Friars Minor.

Cosma Spessotto was sent to serve in the foreign missions in El Salvador in 1950, where he aided the faithful through evangelization and the construction of churches.

Cosma Spessotto was killed in 1980 in the church where he served as pastor, just prior to the celebration of Mass, shot at point blank range.

Cosma Spessotto was born Sante Spessotto on 28 January 1923 in Mansue, Treviso, to a peasant couple, Vittorio Spessotto and Josefina Zamuner.

Cosma Spessotto later helped to care for her nephews and taught them catechism while aiding them with housework; she told them stories of saints.

Cosma Spessotto received his confirmation in 1932 while in 1933 he felt a firm call to the priesthood and so insisted to his father that he start his education in preparation for that.

Cosma Spessotto travelled to the friary of the Friars Minor in Motta di Livenza and asked a friar how much it would take for him to enter, to which the friar responded that the candidate would need to have a clear vocation and the will to serve God.

Cosma Spessotto then demanded that his father relent to his request, to which he did and Sante left for Lonigo to begin his formation as a friar on 3 September 1938.

Cosma Spessotto took the clothes and savings that his aunt had packed for him.

On 16 September 1939 Spessotto was admitted into the novitiate of the Province of Veneto and received the Franciscan habit as well as his religious name of "Cosma".

Cosma Spessotto made his temporary profession of religious vows on 17 September 1940.

Cosma Spessotto was then sent to study philosophy in the friary of San Antonio de Genoa in Udine, but World War II prompted the transfer of the friary's students to the friary of San Francesco in Padua.

Cosma Spessotto made his profession of solemn vows on 19 March 1944 and was ordained to the priesthood on 27 June 1948.

Cosma Spessotto wanted to go to Africa, but this too never materialized.

Cosma Spessotto did not speak any Spanish when he arrived in El Salvador and so had to learn the language in order to speak and connect with the locals.

Cosma Spessotto spent his first week visiting home after home in order to meet the locals.

Cosma Spessotto aimed to connect to the local communities while in El Salvador and worked to rebuild a church that an earthquake had leveled in the 1930s.

Cosma Spessotto learned on one occasion that there were hundreds of couples living together but were not married and in response he organized mass weddings where he married several couples at once.

Cosma Spessotto raised funds for the construction of a school and health clinics.

Cosma Spessotto helped in the construction of a modern and functional church and construction for that church commenced on 2 June 1960.

Cosma Spessotto grew all more vocal in his denunciations after armed gunmen had assassinated the Jesuit priest Rutilio Grande.

Cosma Spessotto nonetheless continued to care to the needs of the ill of his parish while aiding the poor of the area.

On 14 June 1980 Cosma Spessotto had celebrated Mass that afternoon for a slain student in his parish church of St John the Baptist in San Juan Nonualco, where he had served as pastor for many years.

Cosma Spessotto was murdered at the altar while preparing to preside at the celebration of an evening Mass.

The cause was officially accepted by the Holy See on 4 April 2003, in which the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved the process for further investigation, whereupon Cosma Spessotto was titled a Servant of God.