Rolando was only 14 years old when he was tortured and killed “in odium fidei” (“out of hatred for the faith”) on April 13, 1945, just days before the end of the war. At 11, he had entered the seminary and had worn, as was customary at the time, the cassock, because of which he would be brutally killed.
He was born in San Valentino, in the municipality of Castellarano, in the Reggio Emilia area, on January 7, 1931, into a simple family with a deep faith. In 1942, immediately after his Confirmation, he had asked to enter the seminary to become a missionary. Two years later, in 1944, the Germans had occupied the facility, and the seminarians had been forced to return home: priests were viewed with hostility and risked their lives every day. After returning from the seminary, Rolando resumed his former life, but he refused to take off his cassock, even though his former parish priest had just been transferred to a safer place after being attacked and beaten.
On April 10, 1945, Rolando went to study in a woodland near his home, as usual. That evening, he had still not returned. His parents found his books and a note left by the partisans, saying not to look for him. After several days of futile and exhausting searches, his father and the new young parish priest set out and, following directions from the same murderers, discovered the terrible truth. Rolando had been kidnapped, taken to a farmhouse in Piane di Monchio, in the Modena Apennines, tortured for three days, and finally killed on April 13 at three in the afternoon. His murderers had used his black cassock as a soccer ball and then hung it up as a trophy. Before dying, Rolando had asked them to pray for his mother and father.
Rolando Rivi was only a boy, but he demonstrated the strength of a giant: his life and death still speak to us today, teaching us to face even the most difficult circumstances with evangelical courage.
