In Pace Christi

The last of twelve children, Fr. Giovanni Battista Zanardi was born in Brembilla, Bergamo, on 26 September, 1920. In the autumn of 1931, he began secondary studies at the diocesan seminary.

In September, 1942, he entered the Comboni novitiate at Venegono Superiore, Varese and, on 26 June, 1946, he was ordained priest.

Fr. Giovanni Battista asked, and obtained, permission to leave immediately for the missions. In 1948, he reached the mission of Mboro in Sudan. He immediately began to study the language and to work enthusiastically to prepare the growing numbers of children for baptism. He visited all the villages, spending time talking to the people, especially the elderly who seemed to enjoy the conversation of one who was so young, friendly and always happy and who had learned well their language and customs. Fr. John Baptist worked especially at the training of catechists whom he saw as the essential helpers of the missionary. Besides the elderly, he was especially attentive to the sick, especially those suffering from leprosy who were quite numerous in that area.

Having spent five years in missionary ministry at Mboro and six months in Khartoum studying Arabic, he was sent to the mission of Raga, where the majority were Arabs, and he worked there for four years.

When he returned to Italy, he was sent to Thiene as Superior and then to Brescia as Provincial Bursar.

In 1962, he was again sent to the missions, this time to Uganda and worked in the missions of Aliwang and Alanyi, both in the diocese of Lira, and then he was sent to Kampala.

In 1967, he returned to Italy and, after a short period in Milan, was sent to Asti for six years as local Superior.

In 1974 we see him again invited to go to the Ugandan mission of Aber where he stayed only one year, as he was needed in Kenya by the Apostles of Jesus who were growing in numbers and needed to build a seminary. Fr. Giovanni Marengoni needed a competent administrator and found in Fr. Giovanni Battista one who carried out the work extremely well from 1975 to 1977.

From 1977 to 1986 he worked in Rome again as procurator. In 1986, he was sent to England to work in administration.

Between 1990 and 1995, we find him in Rome and in Brescia. In 1995, he again returned to Kenya as administrator for South Sudan. In 1997, he was appointed to Brescia where he was elected cice-superior, a post he had held for a short time when he had to leave for Kenya, taking charge of the finances of South Sudan. Much of his work had to do with administering the diocese of Rumbek, in the south of the country where Mgr. Cesare Mazzolari was bishop. “The bishop has no residence and no cathedral. All has been destroyed by the bombs. He lives in a hut and makes the best of it. Personally, I must work while based in Nairobi, Kenya, because in Rumbek there is no electricity, no banks or offices and no petrol stations”, said Fr. Giovanni Battista in an interview. This time he stayed in Kenya for four years.

He returned to Italy in 2003, and spent six years doing ministry in Brescia. In 2010, he went to Milan for treatment and died there on 18 March, 2013. His remains were interred in the local cemetery at Brembilla di Bergamo where he was born.
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 258 suppl. In Memoriam, gennaio 2014, pp. 47-53.