Roma (AsiaNews) – Recalling our parents cannot fail to move us: their example, their exhortations and efforts made for us and our families; their example and prayer follow us and help us throughout life. It is good to remember the parents of some of our great missionaries, who represent all our parents.

The mother, Giulia, and the father, Giuseppe, of Mgr Angelo Ramazzotti (1800-1861) who founded PIME in 1850, later bishop of Pavia and patriarch of Venice, were a truly Christian couple. Married later in life, they had only two children. They went to Mass every day and in the evening the father would lead the family in recital of the rosary. The mother, Giulia, revealed just how true a Christian she was when she was widowed in 1819. Her first-born son, Filippo, married and left home to start his own family. The second, Angelo, lived with his mother, studied and graduated with honours in law. He started to work for a law firm in Milan. He continued to live with his mother in Saranno, with a brilliant career ahead of him. However in 1824, Angelo revealed to his mother that he wanted to become a priest and to dedicate himself to the education of youth. In 1837, he set up the native house in Saronno – where PIME would be born – the first oratory for youth, much earlier than that started by Don John Bosco in Torino. The reaction of his mother, Giulia, was positive. She received the news joyfully but also felt the need to put her son, now 25 years, on his guard against possible illusions: "Remember that becoming a priest means starting a life of sacrifice and dedication to people: only then are priests credible". Angelo assured her he had prayed and reflected at length on his decision and that he would be true to his word. His mother accompanied him as long as she lived, becoming his most precious collaborator.

Mgr Gaetano Pollio (1911-1991), archbishop of Kaifeng in China, was imprisoned and tried in Mao Tze Tung's China, and later expelled and returned to Italy in 1951. He was bishop of Otranto and archbishop of Salerno. In his later years, Pollio would recall – and it is recorded in his biography written by Fr Amelio Crotti – that his family in Meta di Sorrento (Naples) was very religious and his vocation was born on his mother's lap. Gaetano was the last of seven children. In the evening, the family would say a good night prayer together and then his father would read to his wife and children, either from a good book or from missionaries' correspondence recorded in the "Annals of the Propagation of the Faith". The missionary vocation of the future archbishop of China was born when he was yet a child, nourished by the reading of missionary magazines at home by his father Giuseppe.

I have finished writing the biography of Fr Leopoldo Pastori di Lodi, a missionary in Guinea-Bissau famed for his holiness when he died 10 years ago (1939 – 1996). Leopoldo, the youngest of five children, would always recall his mother; Widowed at a young age, she maintained her children by working as a washerwoman. Leopoldo was the favourite who became a priest and later a missionary. His mother encouraged him in this life choice and when he left for Guinea in 1974 she told him: "Go and do not return". Mamma Francesca ("Cecchina") was a great woman of faith and intense Christian life; she educated her children in prayer and the life of the church. She was a point of spiritual and emotional of reference for Leopoldo. She died on 2 November 1986 at the age of 83years.

Some time ago, I talked to a PIME missionary, who told me something of his past life, confessing that he had been wayward to the extent that he failed to grasp the meaning of his vocation any longer, and he was even tempted to leave and change life. Then, he told me, "I understood that I was mistaken and today I am back to being enthusiastic about my vocation."

I asked him: "What made you change" His answer: "I am sure it was my mother's prayers; she died a few years ago and before she died, she told me: 'Know, my son priest, that I have always prayed for you and that you may remain faithful to your vocation and even in Paradise, I will continue to pray for this'. There", he added, "this phrase remained in my heart for years and little by little I returned, with the help of God, to being that which I should be".

Allow me to mention briefly my parents too: my mother Rosetta died when I was five years old and my father Giovanni was sent to war in Russia when I was 12 and never returned. I became a priest in 1953 and celebrated my First Mass in Tronzano (Vercelli). In the homily, my old parish priest said: "Today the Lord fulfilled the prayer which your father and mother made when they married in 1928. They asked that at least one of their sons or daughters would become a priest or a sister". I knew then that mamma and papa had prayed for my priestly vocation, I was moved and began to cry: it was my parents who had asked God for the happiness I felt in becoming a priest! Since then, every time I celebrate Mass I ask the Lord to renew the enthusiasm and emotion I felt on the day of my First Mass.