Giovanni Schiavo
Italian priest
Feast: 27 January (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
The Vatican record
- 14 December 2015 — Heroic virtue declared — title Venerable (decree list, 2015)
- 1 December 2016 — Miracle through their intercession approved (decree list, 2016)
Who they were
Giovanni Schiavo was born at Sant'Urbano, near Montecchio Maggiore in northern Italy, on 8 July 1903, and joined the Josephites of Murialdo. Sent to Brazil as a young priest, he spent his life there serving the people and forming young religious men and women, and served as provincial superior. He died of liver cancer at Caxias do Sul, Brazil, on 27 January 1967.
The miracles
A man — Caxias do Sul, Brazil — September 1997
A man who had always been healthy needed emergency surgery on 12 September 1997 for an acute clot in the main vein draining the intestines, which had done severe damage. He recovered, and on 18 February 2016 the Vatican's medical board found the healing rapid, complete, lasting and inexplicable by current medical knowledge.
Why that counted as sanctity
The case of a man was examined by the Church's doctors and theologians and approved as a miracle on 1 December 2016, opening the way to beatification.
The cause
Giovanni Schiavo has been beatified; the cause continues. Favours received, and offers of help, go to the postulation, the office that carries the cause forward: Josephites of Murialdo: the cause of Giovanni Schiavo.
Connected on this site
- Eugenio Reffo Venerable“Schiavo entered the Murialdines during World War I in 1917, and was admitted by Eugenio Reffo.” — Wikipedia
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography of Blessed Giovanni Schiavo, with the miracle
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Wikidata Q26998256 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Giovanni Schiavo (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.