When Highland Park became Sister Cities with Modena, Italy, 15 years ago we had no idea of an incredible spiritual connection. Recently, the President of the Sister City Committee in Modena, approached our Foundation with a connection. “There is a priest in Modena who wanted to come to Highland Park.” The why is where the story begins. We learned that the Priest, Don Stefano Violi, is the Director of Citta dei Ragazzi, (Boy’s Town) in Modena, patterned after the Boys’ Town started by Father Flanagan in the United States.
Don Stefano was leading a delegation from Modena to Highland Park on a pilgrimage. But, why Highland Park? As we would learn, they were coming to Highland Park to thank the community that gave birth to Don Sante Bartolai, one of their inspiring Fathers and benefactors. Who was Don Sante Bartolai? Don Sante Bartolai was born in Highland Park in 1917. He and his four brothers were orphaned and sent to be raised by an aunt in the mountains of northern Italy, Sant’Anna Pelago. Three of his brothers returned to the U.S.
Don Sante Bartolai remained in Modena and entered the seminary. He was ordained a priest in 1942. His values and humanity led him to become an active member of the partisans in northern Italy called the Modena Underground Movement. He was captured by the Fascists who turned him over to the Nazis and sent him to Dachau and then to Mauthausen Concentration Camp, where he experienced unspeakable horrors. He was liberated in May 1945 and was sent to a convent in Europe to regain his health. There he wrote his memoir, Da Fossoli a Mauthausen.
Soon after, he founded Citta dei Ragazzi-Boys Town of Northern Italy- based on Father Flanagan’s Boys Town. He remained active in parish work, often returning to Highwood and Highland Park until his death in 1978. As a result of his work with the Modena Underground, Don Sante Bartolai- born in Highland Park, IL, and founder of Citta dei Ragazzi, is inscribed in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. as a righteous gentile- a non-Jewish person who risked his/her life to save Jews during the Holocaust, a title officially awarded by Israel’s Yad Vashem to recognize extraordinary bravery and humanity, with names inscribed in Jerusalem’s Garden of the Righteous. The bonds of our Sister Cities relationship were strong, but now they are profoundly deeper. We are connected by a remarkable man who exemplifies the best in humanity. Don Stefano will be conducting a Mass in tribute to Don Sante Bartolai on January 12th.