Alfredo Cremonesi
Italian Roman Catholic missionary and Martyr
Feast: 7 February (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
The Vatican record
- 19 March 2019 — Martyrdom recognised (decree list, 2019)
Who they were
Alfredo Cremonesi was born at Ripalta Guerina, in the diocese of Crema, on 16 May 1902, the eldest of seven children. Seriously ill as a seminarian, he recovered completely and credited the healing to St Thérèse of the Child Jesus.
A priest of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), he worked in Burma, where his tireless ministry earned him the nickname 'perpetual motion'. He was brutally killed in 1953 while defending the Burmese people of his mission at Donoku amid clashes with rebels.
The miracles
As a martyr he was beatified without a miracle.
Why that counted as sanctity
A missionary who stayed with his people through war and was killed defending them.
The cause
Alfredo Cremonesi has been beatified; the cause continues. Favours received, and offers of help, go to the postulation, the office that carries the cause forward: PIME missionaries: the cause of Alfredo Cremonesi.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Alfredo Cremonesi
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Wikidata Q48545788 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Alfredo Cremonesi (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.