Cell number zero

“Coming back from the procession, two armed Fascist militiamen forced me to follow them to the town hall. There I came face to face with the two informers who had testified against me. There was a brief conversation with the police chief; I admitted the accusations contained in the spies’ deposition, saying I was ready to sign what I had said in church, because everything was sacred truth, approved by faith and history. They didn’t even let me stop at home […]; I was immediately taken to the police headquarters in Cuneo and, a few hours later, thrown into prison (cell number zero: if one day I manage to publish the book of my memories—if I ever manage to write it—that’s the title I want, the number of the cell where I was locked up for having spoken of peace!).”

So writes in his diary Don Raimondo Viale, recounting his arrest and subsequent confinement in Agnone, in the province of Campobasso in Molise. His crime: having spoken words of peace against the imminent war—Mussolini would declare it eight days later—on June 2, 1940.

It happened in Borgo San Dalmazzo, near Cuneo. Don Viale calls the war “useless, foolish,” and says that a priest must always oppose war. He had been parish priest since 1936, already subjected to insults, threats, beatings. But the good shepherd did not abandon his flock. “I,” he writes, “an Alpine mule, tireless, allergic to sexual adventures, bold on steep paths but cautious if the cart driver sleeps after a drunken night, I, a mule of times past but still useful for what others refuse to do, was born in the quiet basin of Limone Piemonte on May 15, 1907, the son of simple people who had turned healthy values into virtues.”

After 8 September, Don Viale chose the Resistance. He helped, fed and hid Jews, heard confessions from and comforted partisans, assisted the condemned. “When we catch that priest, we’ll cut him to pieces,” the Fascist leader threatened. But they never caught him, though they tried many times. He hid in the mountains with the partisans, amid dangers and hardship. And then, as God willed, the war ended. Don Viale received the “partisan certificate,” signed by Ferruccio Parri, Luigi Longo, Enrico Mattei—leaders of the new Italy. From Israel he would later receive the highest honor: “Righteous Among the Nations,” for saving Jews. The “Alpine mule” died on 25 September 1984.

NP August/September 2025
Renzo Agasso