The tobacconist of Prato

Lord, we recognize how small and ignorant we are in the face of your greatness. Renzo Buricchi (1913-1983)

Renzo was born in Seano (PO), in 1913. The boy grew up in the countryside. Once he was an adult, he found himself managing a bar and tobacconist in the town square of Prato. He remained there for forty years.
A convinced communist, he helped his cousins, partisans well known in the area, who both died in 1944 during a sabotage action that involved the destruction of a German train loaded with explosives.
But Renzo was not content to seek a meaning to life in the political tension for a better world: the son of farmers, from childhood he sensed that in nature there was a mystery that could answer his questions.

He would later tell that his first “teacher” had been a cypress tree! From creation to the Creator: fascinated by the personality of Saint Francis, he bonded with his friars and from there the leap to the Gospel was short. A new Renzo appears at the counter and begins a diffusion of Christian faith through “four chats” at the bar. Semi-illiterate, he spreads the Christian message as Saint Paul recommends, “Christ sent me to preach the gospel not with a wise speech, so that the cross of Christ is not made void”. Humility – for those who knew and loved him he remains simply “the tobacconist of Prato” – abandonment, constant renunciation of the ephemeral to open up to a greater Mystery: Renzo Buricchi is all here.

Annamaria Gobbato
NP December 2024