Rolando Rivi
Italian Seminarian (1931–1945)
Feast: 29 May (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
The Vatican record
- 27 March 2013 — Martyrdom recognised (decree list, 2013)
Who they were
Rolando Rivi was born on 7 January 1931 at San Valentino di Castellarano, Reggio Emilia, second of three children of sharecroppers. He served Mass at five and entered the seminary at Marola at eleven in 1942.
When the war closed the seminary he went home but would not take off his cassock. In April 1945, amid bitter hatred of priests, partisans seized him, and on 13 April he was killed in a wood at Piane di Monchio, aged fourteen.
The miracles
As a martyr, beatified without a miracle.
Why that counted as sanctity
A fourteen-year-old seminarian killed for refusing to take off his cassock.
The cause
Rolando Rivi has been beatified; the cause continues. Favours received, and offers of help, go to the postulation, the office that carries the cause forward: The cause of Blessed Rolando Rivi.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Rolando Rivi
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Wikidata Q2267618 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Rolando Rivi (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.