In Pace Christi

Bro. Mario Vermi was born in Chiari, in the province of Brescia, on 30 May, 1938. He was the first of eight children. Years later, he would admit to his confreres that he sent admission applications both to the police and to the Comboni Missionaries. The latter were the first to reply so he chose to become a Comboni. He attended middle school at our house in Crema and then stayed at home for two years. When he was 19, he asked to continue his journey with our Institute. He was sent to Pellegrina where there was a school for Brothers and was awarded a diploma in agriculture. There was a period in which he thought of becoming a priest but entered the novitiate at Gozzano with the intention of becoming a Brother. After the novitiate he took first vows on 1 November, 1960, and perpetual vows in 1966, when he was already in Uganda, at the mission of Morulem.

He had arrived in Uganda in 1963, on his 25^th birthday and appointed to the Karimojong tribe. In Karamoja he worked mostly in constructions, among which were the hospital of Matany and the leprosarium of Morulem. He also devoted himself to the technical education of “the young sons of that pastoral people. Many of them – he said – are good bricklayers, mechanics and carpenters and they became so thanks partly to my efforts”.

In January, 1988, Bro Mario, after 24 years in Uganda, returned to Italy where he stayed only for one year, at the community of Casavatore (Naples).

In 1989 he again left for the mission, this time in Kenya, and worked at Kapenguria, Amakuriat, Katilu and Lokori, mainly in house administration but also as bursar.

“I met Bro. Mario – writes Fr. Franco Moretti – during the nineties of last century. I spent seven years with him at the mission of Lokori (Turkana, Kenya). It was nice being with him. He complained a bit but knew how to be good to people. One knew that, if he lost his temper, once he had calmed down, he was still the same person as before. You could approach him without fear. He was the classical ‘factotum’ Brother. He was competent in many fields. He ran the mission garage excellently. He was fond of his workers and they of him. Mario was a man of justice. The first thing he said he would do when he arrived in Lokori as bursar of the community, was to review the wages of the workers. ‘If you priests wish to underpay your catechists, well that is your business. My workers must receive a just wage: two or three times what the government proposes’. Besides justice, he also cultivated generosity. Small things but constant. He would give a piece of tobacco to an elderly Turkana, or some food to the sick old woman who came to annoy him with her begging.

He could very easily change from mechanical to electrical work and, if some building was necessary, he would complain about it but would come, a few days later, with the design and a list of materials necessary.

He also had friends among the ngorokos, the young Turkana warriors who practice the ‘sport’ of rustling. He knew the Turkana language quite well and decided to put together a Turkana-English dictionary. That was the time when, in order to get help in entering the words into the computer, he taught the young people to use some programmes and they became the very first computer experts in the whole of Turkana, in the early nineties. In 2006, Fr. Raffaele Cefalo had some copies of the dictionary printed and, though it was not entirely complete, the dictionary was very useful locally.

Bro. Mario was a little rude with the confreres, but underneath he had an attentive and often tender heart. When anyone was about to leave to visit another mission, he would check the car in every detail; he would load up some food, water for drinking and cooking, a mattress and some blankets. He was even more careful about knowing the destination and the road to follow. God only knows how many times he came to fetch us when we were stuck in a sandy riverbed or left on foot for some other reason. The distances were long. If anyone happened to be late returning, he would wait for an hour and then jump into a car (despite his bad back) and set out. I remember him bringing me home more than once even after midnight. As time passed, his poor health became a problem, perhaps due to ‘chronic tiredness...’. He managed to return to Italy but, after a year, asked to go back to Africa and was sent to South Sudan. He could clearly not continue for long. As it happened, after less than a year, he was back in Italy. He went from community to community. He was still in bad health and tired. Out of pride, he asked to return to the mission in May, 2005. He was assigned to the community of the house in Kampala (Uganda). Seven months later he was in Brescia. Four months passed and then he placed himself ‘in care’ in the same community. He afterwards made a stop of two years in Florence and then found his niche at Rebbio di Como: he stayed there seven years”.

In July, 2014, he landed in Milan, where he spent his final months before passing away on 27 November of last year.

In conclusion, we give you just a short extract from the funeral homily of Fr. Lino Spezia. “From among the ‘special times’ of Bro. Mario, I wish to choose the one concerning the way he lived his illness. He gave great testimony of serenity and lucidity but most of all of an adult faith that was missionary and profound. Sickness made him more sensitive to the needs and rights of the sick. He was amazing for his courage and the faith that accompanied his words and his experience”.
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 262 suppl. In Memoriam, gennaio 2015, pp. 107-114