Rolando Rivi: the courage of a heart that cries out, “I belong to Jesus”

In the troubled year of 1945, in an Italy scarred by violence and war, a young life shone with the unwavering light of faith, only to be extinguished by hatred… But this is not the final word…

On May 29, the Church commemorates Blessed Rolando Rivi, a martyr seminarian murdered by Communist partisans at just 14 years of age. His story is a powerful hymn to courage and total love for Jesus; today, his story teaches us the strength of forgiveness, capable of overcoming all hatred and division.

«I belong to Jesus»

Born on January 7, 1931, in San Valentino, in the province of Reggio Emilia, Rolando grew up in a farming family that passed on to him the precious gift of faith. At just 11 years old, he felt the Lord’s call strongly in his heart: «Come and follow me». Without hesitation, in 1942, he entered the seminary of Marola.
Wearing the cassock was a source of immense joy for him: that black garment, with thirty buttons, represented his complete belonging to Jesus. The words he spoke upon entering the seminary still resonate powerfully today: «I too now want to be a soldier and defender of Jesus, to love him and honor him with my life». He remained completely faithful to these words.

«I cannot hide myself: I belong to the Lord»

In the summer of 1944, the seminary was occupied by German soldiers, and the seminarians returned home. Rolando went back to San Valentino, continuing his studies under the guidance of the parish priest, Father Olinto. Meanwhile, the partisan struggle was intensifying. In some groups influenced by communist ideology, hatred of priests and seminarians, who were considered enemies, spread. Despite the danger, Rolando never wanted to take off his beloved cassock, a sign of his belonging to Jesus. His parents, worried by the Communist partisans’ hatred of the clergy, advised him to hide it, but Rolando replied with a disarmed firmness filled with love: «I am not afraid. I cannot hide myself; I belong to the Lord». This visible and courageous testimony of faith made him a target for a group of Communist partisans in the area: on the morning of April 10, 1945, while he was studying in a meadow near his home, they ambushed and captured him. They left his parents only a note torn from the boy’s notebook, bearing the words: «Do not look for him: he is coming with us partisans».

Rolando was held prisoner for three days in a farmhouse in Piane di Monchio. He was continually beaten and tortured. He endured everything while raising an unceasing prayer to heaven. On April 13, 1945, a Friday afternoon, at the same hour when Jesus was dying on the cross, Rolando was dragged into a nearby forest. He knew what he was facing, but opened his arms to martyrdom out of love for the Lord. After humiliating, insulting, torturing and beating him, they made him dig his own grave. Then they shot him twice with a revolver. Rolando’s final cry, preceded by prayers for his parents, was a cry of love, an affirmation of his deepest identity: «I belong to Jesus». In the darkness of hatred and violence, his light shone brightly.

Forgiveness blossoms from martyrdom

On April 15, 2018, at the commemoration of the martyrdom, Meris, the daughter of the Communist partisan who killed Rolando, brought a sign of reconciliation to the Pieve of San Valentino: a laurel wreath and white lilies. It was called the “day of reconciliation”, so surprising and unexpected that the then bishop of Reggio Emilia called it «a miracle». The woman explained that she had felt there was something she had to do, feeling guided perhaps by her father’s presence, by divine light, or by Blessed Rolando himself. She invoked the mercy of the Lord, who can heal every wound and transform hatred into love, remembering that Christ forgave his executioners on the cross. She expressed the hope that Rolando’s smile and her father’s smile could shine upon everyone.
In response, Alfonso Rivi, Rolando’s cousin, welcomed Meris as a sister on behalf of the family and wholeheartedly forgave her, emphasizing that this gift «is not ours, but comes from God who first, in Christ, as Rolando taught us, loved, forgave and redeemed us». The embrace that followed was called a symbol of the victory of God’s love.

Rolando Rivi, the blessed young martyr, teaches us that holiness and courage have no age and that true victory is total love for Jesus. May Blessed Rolando Rivi guide us in our lives and intercede for us. Like him, let us ask for the strength to always be a living sign of God’s love in the world.