In Pace Christi

Bro. Lodovico De Rossi was born at Verona on 9 October, 1916, and attended the Salesian commercial and secondary school there. At the age of eighteen he entered the novitiate in Venegono and took his first vows in 1937 and perpetual vows six years later. After his first vows he followed an agrarian course at Remedello, in Brescia province, as part of his professional training.

He spent eight years in the London Province. During the war he was interned with other Italians. In 1946 he was able to leave for Uganda where he worked as a missionary Brother for 48 years, up to 1994.

In Uganda Bro. Lodovico worked mainly in West Nile but also in the dioceses of Gulu and Lira at Arua-Ediofe, Angal, Aber, Koboko, Layibi, Arivu, Kalongo e Ombaci. Generally, he was always at the service of the community but when necessary he taught at the technical and agrarian schools, became a carpenter, a bricklayer, in charge of constructions, etc.

After two years at the provincial house in Nairobi, he was found to need medical care and was assigned to the Italian Province. He moved to Verona, then to Arco and again to Verona. During his long years of illness, his devotion to Our Lady and the Rosary grew. He always carried his Rosary beads with him.

He died in Verona on 6 March, 2011, at the ripe old age of 94 years. His funeral took place at the Verona Mother House and his remains were interred in the Monumental Cemetery of the city.

Fr. Mario Casella, who knew him while he was in Uganda, remembers when they used to meet at Koboko and Bro. Lodovico explained everything he was organising at the Agricultural School and how much he wanted to accompany the students, even when, at the completion of their courses, went back home. Like almost all the Brothers of that time, he never ceased to learn and to keep himself busy even doing things for which he had not been trained. Bro. “Vico” was famous for causing buildings to spring up like mushrooms! He had his own team of builders and they willingly followed him, working well and happily. He was a sociable character and loved to sing songs from the operas he had heard at the Arena of his home town of Verona. He also liked to tell stories of his missionary adventures, his memories of the six years he spent in internment during the war, the many operations he had and so forth. Due to the nature of his work, he had to move often, and so, for instance, he spent two years at Arua, then he went to Angal and, a year later, he was at Aber. Even during his last years in the missions when, for health reasons, he needed to stay near a hospital, he went from Ombaci to Kalongo and then to Nairobi, in Kenya where he continued making himself useful, as usual.