Priest and Missionary, Patriarch of Burma. Vismara served as an infantryman in the Great War, during which he was appointed sergeant major and was honored with three medals for bravery. After the war he resumed his studies in Milan at the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, was ordained a priest in May 1923 and immediately thereafter embarked for Burma arriving at the mission of Kengtung in March 1924. Founding the mission of Mong Lin, he continued expanding in the 1930's with the founding of other missions including Keng Lap, Mong Yong and Mong Pyak. His main objective was to help orphans and widows. In June 1941, he was interned in a POW camp by the British with twelve other Italian missionaries since they belonged to an enemy nation. The following January, the Japanese invaded Burma and a few months later the missionaries were freed. Vismara went back to the Mong Lin mission to continue his work. In January 1955, he transferred to Mong and in 1961, he wrote the biography of Father Stefano Vong, the first priest of Kengtung, killed by hostile Buddhists. In the early 1960's, he oversaw the building of an orphanage, school, church and housing for the missionaries and the sisters. The last mission he founded was that of Pannulong in 1986. After his death, Pope Benedict XVI, signed the Decree of venerability for Father Clemente Vismara, recognizing in him as a Christian who practiced virtues of the Gospel in a heroic grade, and in April 2011 approved the official recognition of a miracle attributed to Father Clemente's intercession which was the necessary element required for him to be approved for beatification which took place on June 26, 2011 in the Piazza Duomo of Milan.
Priest and Missionary, Patriarch of Burma. Vismara served as an infantryman in the Great War, during which he was appointed sergeant major and was honored with three medals for bravery. After the war he resumed his studies in Milan at the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, was ordained a priest in May 1923 and immediately thereafter embarked for Burma arriving at the mission of Kengtung in March 1924. Founding the mission of Mong Lin, he continued expanding in the 1930's with the founding of other missions including Keng Lap, Mong Yong and Mong Pyak. His main objective was to help orphans and widows. In June 1941, he was interned in a POW camp by the British with twelve other Italian missionaries since they belonged to an enemy nation. The following January, the Japanese invaded Burma and a few months later the missionaries were freed. Vismara went back to the Mong Lin mission to continue his work. In January 1955, he transferred to Mong and in 1961, he wrote the biography of Father Stefano Vong, the first priest of Kengtung, killed by hostile Buddhists. In the early 1960's, he oversaw the building of an orphanage, school, church and housing for the missionaries and the sisters. The last mission he founded was that of Pannulong in 1986. After his death, Pope Benedict XVI, signed the Decree of venerability for Father Clemente Vismara, recognizing in him as a Christian who practiced virtues of the Gospel in a heroic grade, and in April 2011 approved the official recognition of a miracle attributed to Father Clemente's intercession which was the necessary element required for him to be approved for beatification which took place on June 26, 2011 in the Piazza Duomo of Milan.
