According to Cardinal De Donatis, the story of this couple continues today as “an authentic, timely and credible testimony of conjugal love.”

PHOTO: PUBLIC DOMAIN.

Newsroom (22/06/2022 7:58 PM Gaudium Press) Two reliquaries will be present in the Paul VI Hall and St. Peter’s Basilica during the Tenth World Meeting of Families. The relics are of the couple Blessed Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi, recently declared patron saints of the event.

The Beltrame Quattrocchi couple

The Beltrame Quattrocchi were the first couple to be beatified by the Catholic Church. The ceremony, which took place on October 21, 2001, in St Peter’s Basilica, was presided over by the then Pope St John Paul II and was attended by the couple’s children Tarcisio, Paolo and Enrichetta.

According to Cardinal De Donatis, the story of this couple, married on November 25, 1905 in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, still appears today as “an authentic, credible and timely testimony of conjugal love.”

Two reliquaries

One of the reliquaries, housing two bone fragments of the Blessed, will be exposed before the altar of Confession in St. Peter’s Basilica. They will also be present during the Holy Mass in St. Peter’s Square to be celebrated on Saturday, November 25.

The second reliquary, which will remain in the Paul VI Hall throughout the Congress, contains the engagement ring that Luigi gave to Maria; two bone fragments of the couple; an image of Our Lady of Pompeii that Maria gave to Luigi before the wedding, at a time when he was ill and a Gospel, which the two spouses read together every morning before attending daily Mass. (EPC)

Compiled by Gustavo Kralj