Patriarch of Burmese Church on path to sainthood in Milan

An Italian missionary who spent most of his life helping the poor in Myanmar was put on the path to sainthood on Sunday, in a beatification ceremony held in Milan’s Cathedral Square.

Called the Patriarch of the Burmese Church by Pope John Paul II in 1983, Clemente Vismara belonged to the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions and is the first person who lived in Myanmar to ever be beatified.

Born in the Lombardy region in Northern Italy in 1897, Patriarch Vismara spent 64 years of his life in the most isolated parts of the Buddhist southeast Asian country, where Christians today make up just a little over one per cent of the population.

He dedicated himself to helping develop and bring stability to parts of the northeast of the country – near the borders with Laos, China and Thailand – by setting up schools, orphanages, hospitals and irrigation canals.

Patriarch Vismara, who cast off worldly goods for a life of destitution, is one of some 200 missionaries who founded a diocese in the area – and is a prime candidate for Pope Benedict XVI’s mission to pay tribute to “ordinary” saints.

Piero Gheddo from the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions missionary, said the decision to beatify Patriarch Vismara had been based on the strong demand from Myanmar local communities, according to the institute’s news agency, Asia News.