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Guillermo Muzzio

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Doing God’s will and being happy is the same thing

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio
Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel
25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002

Discover his lifePray the prayer

Information space about the Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of the Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio, a seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel in Argentina. His example of Christian life, his love for his neighbor through his apostolate and his strength in the face of adversity make him a reference point for the community, expressed in the many testimonies of the people who knew him. After his death, Willy became a direct intercessor before the Most Holy Trinity.

Servant of God

Guillermo Muzzio

Biography

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002

Guillermo was born in Morón on 25 February 1972 and is the third of six siblings. His parents are named Carlos and Carola, and his older siblings are Juan Carlos and Carola. The younger ones are María Clara, Rosario and Teresita.

“Willy”, as his friends called him, was baptized on 22 April 1972 at the Espíritu Santo Parish in San Isidro. From there, where they lived for a few years, his family moved to Bella Vista, in the San Miguel district, at the end of 1976.

A year later he began school at the Colegio Don Jaime. He graduated in 1989 with a secondary-school diploma. From a very young age his family encouraged him to take part in the Catholic Church, and he received his first communion in 1979 and his confirmation in 1985.

In his younger years he studied Food Engineering and took a photography course, a hobby he enjoyed very much. In 1992 he decided to change his university degree and began studying Education Sciences at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina (UCA). But an accident on 28 January 1994, while he was travelling by car with friends, changed his life.

In the town of Balcarce, in Buenos Aires province, and more precisely at the bend known as the “Curva de San Agustín”, the group of friends had a rollover. At that moment Guillermo was thrown from the car and suffered an injury to his spinal cord. Months later he himself would speak of “a bend in my life”.

After that accident he spent several months unable to walk and not knowing whether he ever would again, yet at the same time leaving lessons behind him. During his recovery, a priest who was assisting him at the Clínica Belgrano in Mar del Plata came out of his room deeply moved, saying that “Guillermo is a saint”. He spent several months in a rehabilitation center, constantly bearing witness to joy and sustaining others. Everyone admired his temperament and cheerfulness, even in the midst of pain and uncertainty about his health.

He would say over and over that “I cannot complain about the pain, because Saint Ignatius had surgery without anesthesia”. It was a habit of his to refer to the lives of the saints in order to put ordinary situations of his own life in the right perspective.

At the age of 24, Guillermo found his vocation: he entered the seminary in February 1996. It was immediately clear how deep his conviction was and how much joy he felt after deciding to consecrate himself to God as a priest.

In the late 1990s he was diagnosed with a terminal illness and, after several treatments, underwent a bone-marrow transplant that was clinically successful but led to a series of infections that took him from us at only 30 years of age. Guillermo died in 2002, precisely on 1 November, the day on which “All Saints” are commemorated.

Milestones of his life

  1. 1972Born in Morón on 25 February, the third of six siblings.
  2. 1976The family moves to Bella Vista (San Miguel).
  3. 1979Receives his first communion.
  4. 1985Receives confirmation.
  5. 1989Graduates from Colegio Don Jaime.
  6. 1992Begins Education Sciences at the UCA.
  7. 28/01/1994Accident in Balcarce: “a bend in my life”.
  8. 1996Enters the seminary, in February.
  9. 1998Is diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
  10. 2002Bone-marrow transplant and death on 1 November, All Saints’ Day.

I cannot complain about the pain because Saint Ignatius had surgery without anesthesia.

Guillermo Muzzio

Tap a photo to see it larger.

Guillermo Muzzio – Doing God’s will and being happy is the same thing

His illness and death

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002

In mid-1998 Willy was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and he lived through the illness with his usual smile, without dramatizing it, without putting himself at the center and without playing the victim. He never asked for an exception in seminary life and, through three years of various treatments, he kept steadily at his apostolic work in the parishes of San Antonio in José C. Paz and Nuestra Señora de La Salette in Pablo Nogués.

Everywhere he went he left traces of his passing, with his joy and his love for his neighbor, for Jesus, for the Virgin Mary, for the Eucharist, for the Cura Brochero, for Saint Thérèse, among others.

In 2002 he suffered a relapse and those closest to him decided on a bone-marrow transplant as a last option. Guillermo spoke with a friend about the possibility that the operation might not go well, in these words: “If everything goes well we will celebrate a lot, but if the transplant does not work, Tata is waiting for me with love”.

He was admitted to the Favaloro Foundation on the feast of Saint William of Vercelli and said he was going “on a retreat”. He took with him a notebook in which he would write throughout those days under the title: “Favaloro Foundation, a place of encounter with God”. He also took recordings of the Spiritual Exercises that Father Lazzarini had preached at the seminary and a cassette of religious songs. He asked a nearby parish to bring him communion every day.

The transplant went well, but days later a series of infections began that could not be contained. At the end of September a virus attacked his lungs fatally. For that reason, during his last week of life it was decided to open the doors of his isolation so that everyone could say goodbye. Guillermo departs on 1 November 2002, All Saints’ Day. His remains were waked at his parents’ home in Bella Vista.

It was a celebration of consolation and hope. People came from everywhere to say goodbye. Testimonies of his life multiplied by the dozens that day. The Bishop of San Miguel, Monsignor José Luis Mollaghan, celebrated a Mass, and gave a moving testimony of Guillermo’s goodness and holiness.

The next day Mass was celebrated at the Bella Vista Cemetery, and his remains stayed there until Sunday 4 November 2007, the day they were transferred to the cemetery of the Diocesan Seminary of San Miguel. With his burial the Priests’ Cemetery of the Seminary was inaugurated.

If everything goes well we will celebrate a lot, but if the transplant does not work, Tata is waiting for me with love.

Guillermo Muzzio, to a friend

His vocation and spiritual life

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002

Willy’s reading · 1:27

From 1986 Guillermo took part in the youth camps of the San Francisco Solano Parish in Bella Vista. In 1987 he made the Aventura spiritual retreat, where he took part in several teams until 1990. He is remembered with great depth, joy and humility. He then began to take part in the Parish Youth Movement, which for three years held gatherings for young people from the Bella Vista and Muñiz area.

His life was marked by the presence of friends, whom he gathered by the dozens, and above all by his faithfulness to friendship. In 1992, in a letter to his father, he revealed his desire for holiness: “You have a son who wants to be a Saint”.

In 1995, recovered from that accident (read Biography), he began to go on missions in El Impenetrable in Salta province with the Wichi people (with the group Kalai, which means friend in the Wichi language). This experience marked him deeply, because there he learned about mercy and strengthened a love for the poorest that would mark his whole life. It was at the end of that year that he announced his entry into the Diocesan Seminary, which he finally did in February 1996.

It was visible to those who knew him how joyfully he lived his decision to consecrate himself to God as a Priest. He made great friends among his seminary companions, where he was always attentive to everyone. During those years he worked with and for the poor with great affection: he specially asked to be told if anyone came to the seminary door.

His peers remember him saying that the pillars of the seminary were prayer (Guillermo always went very early to the Chapel to be alone with the Lord), study (because it was the way of preparing to serve the People of God well) and community life (which he saw as the concrete exercise of love).

He took priestly formation very seriously. “Here everything comes from within”, he used to say. He also said that “every morning I make a promise to live in holiness”, and he renewed that same intention every noon “because one always makes some blunder”.

In 2001 Guillermo received Admission to Holy Orders in the Cathedral of San Miguel.

You have a son who wants to be a Saint.

Letter to his father, 1992

Camps and Aventura

From 1986 in the youth camps of San Francisco Solano; in 1987 he made the Aventura retreat, where he took part in several teams until 1990.

Missions with the Wichí

In 1995 he went on missions in El Impenetrable, Salta, with the group Kalai, which means “friend” in the Wichí language.

The seminary

He announced his entry at the end of 1995 and made it in February 1996. In 2001 he received Admission to Holy Orders.

Aventura retreat, 1988
“Clark Priest”, a drawing with humor (1996)
Handwritten letter — tap to enlarge

Beatification and canonization

The Cause

Synthesis of the Cause

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002

That his children may be Saints as He is Holy.

Introduction to the Synthesis of the Cause

The path of the Cause

  1. 2002Dies on 1 November; the word “holiness” multiplies on everyone’s lips.
  2. 2005Msgr. Sergio Fenoy arrives as the fifth Bishop of San Miguel and begins to hear testimonies.
  3. 2007His remains are transferred to the Seminary cemetery (4 November).
  4. 2018The Bishop appoints Fr. Francisco José Occhiuzzi as Postulator; First Symposium on 1 November.
  5. July 2020The opening of the process is announced.
  6. 1/11/2020Opening of the diocesan phase, with the decree of Msgr. Damián Nannini.
  7. TodayServant of God Guillermo Muzzio.
Introduction

“That his children may be Saints as He is Holy”. In the time of the Church the Holy Spirit has given the strength and grace of sanctification to the children of God. The Saints are the most beautiful face of the work of the Holy Spirit and one of the great gifts that God has given to his People. In them we find a model, encouragement and powerful intercessors. In every stage of the life of the Church and of the world the Lord has given us Saints who have been a divine message for their time. The reputation for holiness and the help of their intercession have been the signs by which, over the centuries, it has been possible to recognize those who have stood out for their fidelity to the Gospel, for their love of God and neighbor.

In the Diocese of San Miguel in Argentina we have been witnesses to a life that was admirable for its depth and simplicity. Those of us who shared some stage of his life were always able to see in him “the best of all of us”, as his friends testify. Since his death, as he gave his life out of love for the will of God and offered it in charity for others, the testimonies have multiplied and his reputation has grown and spread among many other Christians who have found in him a valuable intercessor, above all among the sick and among people called to a special consecration.

The Diocese of San Miguel recognizes in Guillermo Muzzio one of its sons who have marked its life and history. Today it wishes, with humility, to ask the Church to contemplate this life and to confirm with its judgment the conviction of many of us about the holiness of the seminarian Guillermo Muzzio.

From his death to 2018

After four years of suffering a serious illness and being periodically treated at the Favaloro Foundation in the City of Buenos Aires, he died on 1 November 2002. He had been hospitalized there since early September to undergo a bone-marrow transplant as a last treatment option for the illness. He was in his third year of theology, a seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel. He died on All Saints’ Day in the morning. The number of people from all over the diocese, as well as the atmosphere that prevailed, already spoke to us of the testimony of the life we were bidding farewell to. The word “holiness” was multiplying on everyone’s lips.

In 2005 Monsignor Sergio Alfredo Fenoy arrived as the fifth Bishop of San Miguel. On his arrival he began to hear testimonies from priests and seminarians who spoke to him about Guillermo Muzzio. Also in several Catholic communities.

In 2006 the idea began of transferring the remains of Guillermo Muzzio (who had been buried in the Bella Vista cemetery) to the Diocesan seminary. This is how the idea of having a cemetery for priests was born, which would be inaugurated with the transfer of his remains on Sunday 4 November 2007.

This event, five years after his death, was on the one hand a first recognition of Guillermo’s particular figure and of the devotion that had been growing during those five years. The seminary held an all-night prayer vigil the evening before, as a gesture of private veneration of his remains. On the other hand, it meant that Guillermo’s tomb began to be visited, first by seminarians and visitors to the seminary and then by the faithful of the diocese. This fact was reflected in the municipal newspaper of those dates as a sign of the awareness that the figure of Guillermo Muzzio was beginning to have in the area.

From that moment a particular way of treating the memory of Guillermo began to take shape. Monsignor Fenoy asked his family for custody of Guillermo’s belongings and writings. With the belongings, which until then had been kept by the family, the first archive of Guillermo Muzzio was established at the Diocesan Curia.

Little by little, testimonies of prayer and intercession began to arrive.

In 2014, on the initiative of some priests and seminarians, a vocation holy card was produced with the image of Guillermo, a summary of his life and the prayer for vocations, distributed throughout the Diocese. It recalls that offering of Guillermo’s in the days before his death: “I offer it for the vocations of the Diocese”.

This image of Guillermo and the prayer for vocations began to be requested from the Bishopric and the seminary by parishes, diocesan institutions and individuals.

In 2016 people began to speak of the possibility of starting the process of beatification and canonization.

In 2017 the Diocesan Bishopric made a first consultation of the presbyteral council and the council of consultors of the diocese. It then extended the consultation to the whole presbytery. The affirmative response was unanimous. In December 2017 Guillermo’s parents were visited and gave an affirmative answer. Monsignor Fenoy asked that expressions of support for the start of the cause be sent to him, and the response was massive and immediate.

In March 2018 Monsignor Sergio Fenoy, having heard the Presbyteral Council and the Council of Consultors of the Diocese, established the Diocese of San Miguel as Petitioner of the Cause and, by decree dated 9 April 2018, appointed Fr. Francisco José Occhiuzzi as its Postulator.

During 2018 and 2019 the postulator interviewed bishops, priests, seminarians, former seminarians, friends, acquaintances and all of Guillermo’s relatives in order to carry out the preliminary investigation and learn first-hand the testimonies about Guillermo’s life, reputation for holiness and signs. He also interviewed the pastoral groups Guillermo had known during his time at the seminary, as well as professors and formators of the seminary. Particular attention was paid to listening and asking specifically whether anyone knew of any fact that might be an impediment or obstacle to the progress of the Cause. Throughout this period the conviction of the holiness and signs of the seminarian Guillermo Muzzio has been strengthened, with characteristic Christian virtues appearing from his youth until his death.

On the anniversary of his death, 1 November 2018, a symposium on the life and message of Guillermo Muzzio was held. The community’s interest was shown in different ways. It was broadcast by streaming and the parish hall overflowed with people.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

In November 2019 the postulator submitted the petition for the introduction of the cause to the Diocesan Bishop of San Miguel, Msgr. Damián Nannini. After consulting the episcopate and the Holy See, he accepted the petition and on 1 November 2020 the cause was introduced with the public reading of the decree of the diocesan bishop, thus beginning the diocesan phase of the process of Beatification and Canonization of the Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio. From then on begins the long process of studying and gathering testimonies about his life, virtues and reputation for holiness.

Beatification and canonization

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002

What is a saint?

We will find the answer to this question guided by the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It teaches us the following:

2013 “All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity” (LG 40). All are called to holiness: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48): “In order to reach this perfection the faithful should use the strength dealt out to them by Christ’s gift, so that . . . doing the will of the Father in everything, they may wholeheartedly devote themselves to the glory of God and to serving their neighbor. Thus the holiness of the People of God will grow into an abundant harvest of good, as is admirably shown by the life of so many saints in Church history” (LG 40).

Keep reading

2014 Spiritual progress tends toward ever more intimate union with Christ. This union is called “mystical” because it participates in the mystery of Christ through the sacraments — “the holy mysteries” — and, in him, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity (…)

2015 The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle (cf. 2 Tim 4). Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes (…)

Now, from this universal call to holiness, the Church confirms that some who have faithfully followed Jesus are an example that conformity with Christ is possible. These are called “canonized saints”.

They are men and women, children, young people, adults and the elderly who have lived in such a way that around them — and even beyond the place where they lived — a true reputation for holiness has spread. There are also those who died as martyrs, that is, as witnesses of the FAITH, giving their lives and forgiving those who, out of hatred for Christ or his teachings, killed them.

All of them, just as before their definitive entry into Eternal Life they prayed interceding for the men and women entrusted to them, now — through Christ, with him and in him — intercede in a most special way for all of us, being inseparably united to God.

To learn how the process works by which the Church recognizes and canonizes these saints, we recommend reading, on this same page, the section: “What is a cause?”

What is a cause?

By canonization is understood the pontifical act by which the Holy Father declares that a faithful person has attained holiness.

The canonization process is one of the special processes governed by a specific norm. Through canonization, the Christian people are authorized to venerate the new saint in accordance with the liturgical norms.

Keep reading

Canonization is currently an act reserved exclusively to pontifical authority. But — while remaining within the exclusive competence of the Pontiff — the act of canonization is preceded by a true judicial process, one of the most rigorous in the world.

Suffice it to say that a cause of canonization generally takes place over decades, and it is not unusual to find causes that have lasted centuries; to reach the canonization of a faithful person, several processes are followed before different tribunals — often in different countries — and various bodies of the Holy See intervene. Over the years, until the declaration of canonization, dozens of judges and specialized officials of the Holy See may have intervened, examining in detail each and every one of the steps that have been taken.

Archive

First Symposium, 2018
XIX Anniversary, 2021
Holy card with his biographical note, 2014
Note in the diocesan press
Press clipping

Prayer for the swift Beatification

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002

Prayer for the swift Beatification and to ask for the intercession of the Servant of God.

Good Father, in your Servant Guillermo Muzzio, a young seminarian, you gave us a true friend who has left us the testimony of a joyful life given in love to God and to others. You granted him to meet Jesus in prayer and in the everyday things of life, and so he has left us the example of a simple and profound holiness. You made him understand that “doing your will and being happy is the same thing”; and for that reason he walked through life always with a smile, even in the moments of the cross.

We ask you, Lord, that through the intercession of Guillermo and our Mother, you grant us the grace we so greatly need (make the petition).

We beg you to complete your work by glorifying your Servant with the crown of the saints.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be)

Prayer for private devotion. It is in no way intended to anticipate the judgment of the Church. Nihil Obstat given by the Bishop of San Miguel in Argentina, Msgr. Damián Nannini.

Download holy card

Voices of those who knew him

Testimonies

Some of the testimonies gathered over the years.

I thank God for having met you

Testimony from a friend

I thank GOD for having met you back in the early nineties, days before we went backpacking to Bariloche… Among mountains and lakes we had a wonderful…

Three great virtues of Willy

Testimony from a lifelong friend

In that scene three great virtues of Willy are reflected. First, the immense joy with which he lived in this world. Second, the time and importance…

I watched you again and again in church

I watched you again and again in church, alone, praying in silence, and I saw that it was the gift of patience in waiting for the will of God. We…

I saw you at Hogar La Posada

I saw you at Hogar La Posada (a home for people ill with HIV), already sick yourself, consoling the sick. I saw you at God’s Altar, at every Mass…

Willy was a missionary at heart

Testimony from a friend

Willy was a missionary at heart. His life was mission. Every encounter with another person was special (I speak from my own experience and from what…

That Thursday afternoon he had only a few hours left

Testimony from a friend

That Thursday afternoon he had only a few hours left, yet those of us who knew him knew that he was not going to leave that night, we knew he would…

He is happy!

Testimony from a friend

He is happy! Because that, in reality, is what he always sought: to be at God’s side. And that is when, although the pain never ceases, one was able…

He loved the priesthood

Testimony from a priest, a friend from the seminary

He loved the priesthood, he carried it in his soul, he read, studied, wrote and prayed, always seeking closeness to Jesus and Mary. I remember that…

He had virtues in abundance

Testimony from a seminarian

Willy, like all people, probably had more flaws, but one thing was certain: “he had virtues in abundance”. The son of a family where nothing was…

He needed little earth to sing the poem of his life

Testimony from a priest who knew him well

He needed little earth to sing the poem of his life. Not that his fate was that of the seed the sower let fall on shallow ground, to sprout quickly…

He guided many children and young people on the way to God

Testimony from a young woman from Guillermo’s apostolate as a seminarian

To begin with, he was the one who guided many children and young people on the way to God, he taught us to be good people and always to entrust…

He felt united to Jesus in the passion

Testimony from a friend

He felt united to Jesus in the passion, but he never felt like a victim. He saw the Cross as a place of grace and mercy, of light that gives meaning…

Letters, meditations and notebooks

His writings

Some of his writings gathered over the years.

The fundamental truths on which my life rests

Found on a floppy disk (undated, but it must be around 2001 or 2002)

Meditating on the Gospel of John

On 9 February 1998 Guillermo wrote in his spiritual notebook, meditating on the Gospel of John:

Lovers

I find certain similarities among lovers of all times; in all of them there is an ardent desire to be alone with the beloved.

Anniversary of the birth of Cura Brochero

On 16 March 2002, on the anniversary of the birth of Cura Brochero, he writes this prayer in his spiritual notebook:

December 2001

Guillermo left a little note for each of his Seminary companions that read: “Please write on this sheet anything — a fault…

Writing to a friend in April 2002 from the seminary

My grandmother died recently, she was already very old and ill, and amid the pain I felt a deep joy that she had been…

From his hospitalization at the Favaloro Foundation

From his hospital room at the Favaloro Foundation, he writes on 12 September to a friend:

From 2021 to 2018

News

Some of the news gathered over the years.

  1. VideoEvent

    Solemnity of All Saints and the XIX Anniversary of the Servant of God

    Many thanks to everyone who was able to attend the Holy Mass for the Solemnity of All Saints and the XIX Anniversary of the Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio.

  2. Event

    XIX Anniversary of the Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

    Monday 01.11.2021, Solemnity of All Saints. XIX Anniversary of the Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio. 7 p.m. Holy Mass and blessing of a plaque in memory of the Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio. Presided over by our Bishop Msgr.…

  3. Video

    Third virtual regional meeting 2020. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

    We gathered to learn a little more about the life of Guillermo Muzzio, a step on earth toward holiness.

  4. Press

    Canonization process opened for a seminarian from Buenos Aires province

    Bishop Damián Nannini published the edict opening the cause and the investigation phase into his life and heroic virtues, reputation for holiness and miracles.…

  5. Press

    Msgr. Nannini encouraged following the example of the Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

    Celebrating the solemnity of All Saints on Sunday 1 November, the Bishop of San Miguel, Monsignor Damián Nannini, remembered the Servant of God Guillermo…

  6. Video

    Opening of the canonization process of the Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

    Guillermo Muzzio, an Argentine seminarian, on the way to holiness.

  7. Press

    A seminarian on the road to the altars

    The Bishop of San Miguel (Buenos Aires) has published the edict opening the cause for canonization of the young Guillermo Muzzio, a seminarian in the diocese.

  8. Video

    Cause opened for a seminarian who always went about with a smile

    The Bishopric of San Miguel (Argentina) announced the start of the cause for beatification of the young seminarian Guillermo Muzzio, who was known for always…

  9. Press

    The diocese of San Miguel opens the canonization process of a seminarian

    The Bishop of San Miguel, Monsignor Damián Gustavo Nannini, published an edict on the occasion of opening the cause for canonization of the young Guillermo…

  10. Press

    Cause opened for a seminarian who always went about with a smile

    The “petition” was requested on 21 November 2019 by Fr. José Francisco Occhiuzzi, appointed postulator of the Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of…

  11. Music

    Song for Guillermo Muzzio

    So loved by many that even those who were not lucky enough to know you feel you very close, feel you are their friend.

  12. Press

    Two seminarians from Argentina and Brazil on the road to the altars

    The testimony of both enlightens many seminarians. Their causes have begun.

  13. EventVideo

    First Symposium

    First symposium on the life and message of Guillermo Muzzio.

  14. Video

    Interview with Father Francisco José Occhiuzzi

    Interview with Father Francisco José Occhiuzzi on Canal Provincial, a channel that covers news from the localities of San Miguel, José C. Paz, Malvinas…

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Testimony

I thank God for having met you

Testimony from a friend

I thank GOD for having met you back in the early nineties, days before we went backpacking to Bariloche… Among mountains and lakes we had a wonderful holiday and, truth be told, it was the only one in which we enjoyed nature as a group, something you loved very much. It was on that trip that I began to know you well, and from then on I realized that you were not just anyone. You were the same as everybody else, but at the same time very different.

The same, because you shared and enjoyed the same things as any 18-year-old. And different, because your supernatural vision set you apart from the rest. And I should tell you, even back then it showed a lot. In my mind I keep the memory of a spectacular trip that would end in a great friendship between us. Today I understand why. When someone was looking for the answer to some matter and went round and round without finding it, they knew they had to turn to somebody. And that somebody was called Willy. Your supernatural wisdom could close the matter with one sentence, and only one. Your greatest virtue was the simplicity of life, which you also applied to your words.

And that is precisely one of the things I will miss the most. You left us as teaching many things that you lived out in the ordinary course of life and that, for a normal person like me, a whole lifetime will surely not be enough to absorb. In saying this I argue that our friendship will last forever, because I will always have a reason to talk with you. Get ready: you have become a kind of guardian angel to my family, and as such I intend to live with you.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
Testimony

Three great virtues of Willy

Testimony from a lifelong friend

In that scene three great virtues of Willy are reflected. First, the immense joy with which he lived in this world. Second, the time and importance he gave to each of his tasks, and third, his admirable humility in carrying them out.

He also gave us many gifts. The three most important ones, at least for me, are: the example of being in love with God and, as such, daring to accept the consequences that the Lord’s love brings. The second is that after “his departure” I can no longer be afraid of the “great step”. Because of the way he took it, he left marked on my heart the human certainty and conviction that God is waiting for me at the end of my days. This does not mean that I did not believe it before, but when I thought about that moment of “crossing the border of life”, I cannot deny that it scared me “quite a bit”. And the third was really not given to me by Guillermo, it was given to me by God. It is having shared almost 20 years of friendship with a very special person.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
Testimony

I watched you again and again in church

I watched you again and again in church, alone, praying in silence, and I saw that it was the gift of patience in waiting for the will of God. We talked together several times about what you felt in your heart and I understood that the Lord fills the humble with good things, and you, Guille, he filled with trust, acceptance and peace, even in the midst of human storms.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
Testimony

I saw you at Hogar La Posada

I saw you at Hogar La Posada (a home for people ill with HIV), already sick yourself, consoling the sick. I saw you at God’s Altar, at every Mass, and I saw you already in Heaven. The last time I saw you, I saw you in the “great mystery of the sorrowful cross” and I loved God more. Thank you, Guille, and don’t forget me in Paradise!

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
Testimony

Willy was a missionary at heart

Testimony from a friend

Willy was a missionary at heart. His life was mission. Every encounter with another person was special (I speak from my own experience and from what other friends we have in common have shared with me). Doing mission is nothing more than trying to kindle in the other person the fire that is in their heart, often dwindling or even put out. Guillermo was a specialist at kindling that flame. He made each person feel special. And he made every encounter, every conversation, every gesture awaken in each of us something so strong that today, for many, it is what we remember most about him.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
Testimony

That Thursday afternoon he had only a few hours left

Testimony from a friend

That Thursday afternoon he had only a few hours left, yet those of us who knew him knew that he was not going to leave that night, we knew he would hold on in order to go on his own day, he was not going to do it before, he was going to do it on “All Saints’ Day”, and I know that God kept that day for him from the moment he thought of him and gave him the strength to hold on one more week, so that he would go to meet him on a day as special as 1 November.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
Testimony

He is happy!

Testimony from a friend

He is happy! Because that, in reality, is what he always sought: to be at God’s side. And that is when, although the pain never ceases, one was able to find strength and bid him farewell singing, as he would have liked; nothing was missing, there were guitars, the violin, his favorite songs and his friends.

I think the illness helped him to focus on the essential and to live from there. It freed him from many things and made him live only for God, to love, to serve others. He once told me that the communion with God that in almost 30 years he had not achieved with so much effort, God gave him as a gift from one moment to the next in his illness. “So much prayer, so much searching, and God from one day to the next gives me everything”.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
Testimony

He loved the priesthood

Testimony from a priest, a friend from the seminary

He loved the priesthood, he carried it in his soul, he read, studied, wrote and prayed, always seeking closeness to Jesus and Mary. I remember that he liked to go a little before Lauds (6:00 a.m.) to pray in the chapel in the dark with only the altar candles lit, only he and Jesus in the half-light of dawn and in the intimacy of the heart.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
Testimony

He had virtues in abundance

Testimony from a seminarian

Willy, like all people, probably had more flaws, but one thing was certain: “he had virtues in abundance”. The son of a family where nothing was lacking, he lived completely detached from superfluous things. Even though he always lived on just enough money to get by between university and his apostolate, he never allowed anyone to go without. He did not hesitate to offer even his own new clothes to whoever needed them. And if someone came to the Seminary to ask for food, besides taking away something to eat, they took away in their memory his smile and kind treatment.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
Testimony

He needed little earth to sing the poem of his life

Testimony from a priest who knew him well

He needed little earth to sing the poem of his life. Not that his fate was that of the seed the sower let fall on shallow ground, to sprout quickly and wither at once when the sun rose. On the contrary, his roots swelled deep in the land of promise, as if already scanning the towers and walls of the land that “I myself will show you”.

At times we need to stop the march when we notice that our soul has been left behind; Willy, on the other hand, had to run after his soul, which had already gone too far ahead of him.

We could not hold him back. What has remained with us is the wrench and the tear. In that wrench and that tear he has given us the ultimate gift: to dare the Abyss that founds us and the leap that constitutes us.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
Testimony

He guided many children and young people on the way to God

Testimony from a young woman from Guillermo’s apostolate as a seminarian

To begin with, he was the one who guided many children and young people on the way to God, he taught us to be good people and always to entrust ourselves to God and the Virgin. Always with that smile, his humility, his blind faith in God and in the Virgin, he taught us to put our problems in God’s hands and the importance of prayer, conveying peace and hope with his wise words.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
Testimony

He felt united to Jesus in the passion

Testimony from a friend

He felt united to Jesus in the passion, but he never felt like a victim. He saw the Cross as a place of grace and mercy, of light that gives meaning to everything. He talked a lot about heaven, with several funny anecdotes, imagining it as a place where everything that makes you happy comes together. That is why he always said that in heaven you always eat breaded cutlets with rice. But he looked at death as an encounter, and although he did not want to die, because he deeply wanted to live and to be a priest, he trusted that when the moment came, a great embrace from Tata God and a lot of happiness would be waiting for him.

He was deeply human, and so was his experience of God and of the saints. That is what he longed for in the Church: more joy, more closeness and fewer judgments. He had a great capacity to enter into dialogue with different positions, he could feel comfortable sharing with groups within the church that criticize one another, and he found good points in each of them.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
His writings

The fundamental truths on which my life rests

Found on a floppy disk (undated, but it must be around 2001 or 2002)

What are the fundamental truths on which my life rests?

The first thing I experience day by day is that only love is worth living, and that in our life everything that is not love runs the risk of setting us against ourselves, against our family, our friends or our partner.

I experience day by day that, thanks to someone who taught me to love to the point of giving my life and gave me the strength to do it, I have been able to harvest, in almost 30 years, love everywhere, and nothing makes me feel happier than loving everyone and being loved by them, even in the clashes I had with others. Life showed me the way to understand and forgive, when everything demanded revenge and hatred, incomprehension and a heart closed to forgiveness.

This last one, I believe, was one of the most fundamental lessons. Being able to understand and therefore forgive brings to the heart such great peace that wounded pride and legitimate pain gradually cease to be engines of hatred, resentment, anger and of that legitimate but sometimes arrogant question: Why did it have to happen this way?
The security with which love plants us in life is something that cannot be explained.

One simply knows that one is in the middle of a tidal wave, that everything calls for bewilderment and meaninglessness, for the pain and helplessness of not understanding anything, and in spite of all this, one can keep a serene gaze, a heart at peace and a mind ready to overcome whatever comes, loving the one I have beside me and making the dark atmosphere that surrounds us all a little clearer and kinder for Him.

Discovering through lived experience that only love makes us capable of living each day more fully, today I want to invite you who read this letter not to waste any more time on yourself.

I want to invite you to do everything you do moved by love and thinking of the other who is beside you, in front of you or farther away. Nothing rots life as much as selfishness, nothing embitters us more inwardly than realizing at the end of the day that we were not able to live for others even a little.

Maybe this frightens you, and it is healthy that it does; maybe it seems uncomfortable to you, and you are not mistaken; but in spite of the fear and the discomfort, it is a possibility that someone has given you, and if you dare to live it you will begin to experience how fear is pulverized and how discomfort, fatigue and the “time wasted” on others become the most effective engines of a deep peace and an inner freedom that can only be told by those who truly believed that there is more joy in giving than in receiving.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
His writings

Meditating on the Gospel of John

On 9 February 1998 Guillermo wrote in his spiritual notebook, meditating on the Gospel of John:

In the beginning was the word. In the beginning, before everything was created, I do not know how long ago, among the millions and millions of names, among Isaiah, Napoleon, Aristotle, Dad, Saint Ignatius, among all these names, the word thought of Guillermo, dreamed him and saw that it was good, found a unique and irreplaceable meaning in Guillermo’s existence; without him, the world would not be the same. Just as he dreamed so many, at one moment he thought of Guillermo. Time appeared and went by, it passed and passed, centuries, millennia, and that name was in the bosom of God… And that name appeared in Mom’s womb and God smiled, his dream was reality, his thought now had freedom, a freedom that he could never cancel, and with all the tragic and wonderful things that this means God smiled, Guillermo existed and everything was for him, he was deprived of nothing, God gave him everything, he gave him Christ, he gave him everything.

The more you pray to know what God has always thought and wanted for you, and the more humbly you accept, making of your freedom what God wants, the holier and happier you will be in everything; the holier and happier creation will be.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
His writings

Lovers

Found on a floppy disk. June 1999.

I find certain similarities among lovers of all times; in all of them there is an ardent desire to be alone with the beloved.

Love asks for the solitude of lover with beloved.

This is an experience to which all who have ever passed through such an enchantment can testify.

Yes, love asks for the solitude of lover with beloved.

This same law of the heart, but at an even deeper level, should be the one lived by all who call themselves Christians in their relationship with the Beloved.

In all the men and women who took things seriously we find the same and even greater desire for solitude with the beloved Person.

I would never finish if I tried to name them one by one; suffice it as an example to mention the latent love that is discovered in the poems of Saint Teresa or Saint John of the Cross.

Searching within myself for something resembling this ardent desire for solitude with the Beloved, I came to discover a deep truth to which a good part of my life corresponded:

There was nothing in the depth of my heart but a faint glimmer of this infinite desire for solitude.
It was not hard to reach such a sad conclusion: recalling the moments in which these encounters with my Love took place, I find nothing but sporadic and superficial contacts with his Word, routine liturgical and sacramental participation, fleeting “visits to the Blessed Sacrament”, framed between lunch and rest time, in which I am barely able to concentrate enough to make an act of Faith.

How — I ask myself — can I say that I am in love with Christ and the Church if I find in myself such a lack of desire for communion with them?

How much truth do my formal prayers and gestures hide?

How can it be that I treat with such indifference the Person I say I love more than anyone in the world?

Looking inside, and as I write this, I see in myself an infinite desire to desire this solitude. I would love to be one of those lovers who secretly carry a little bottle with the perfume of the person they love, to be able to evoke their presence at any moment or in any place. I would also like to have the madness of those lovers who are able to spend the night talking about nothing and everything, moved only by the desire to spend it together.

Why, Lord, do I find in myself nothing but the desire for the desire for this solitude with You? What can I do so that these two desires merge into one? I once read somewhere that just as skin, when in the sun, gradually begins to take on color, so it happens with the heart that is exposed to the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. This heart also begins, little by little, to take on color.

Perhaps one way is to imitate the patience that some exercise in tanning their skin, being able to stay for long hours lying in the sun. To imitate this patience and stay longer in the presence of the Beloved, forgetting the little bell that, at minute fifteen, gives me free rein to leave the chapel hurriedly to do “more important” things. Perhaps another way is to imitate, in reading the Word of God, the interest with which a boyfriend reads and rereads a letter from his girlfriend. Or perhaps, finally, another way is to look for moments to say everything or nothing to each other, as those who truly love one another do.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
His writings

Anniversary of the birth of Cura Brochero

On 16 March 2002, on the anniversary of the birth of Cura Brochero, he writes this prayer in his spiritual notebook:

“Today you were born, Cura Brochero. I asked for the birthday gift, the healing of Tomás. Accompany Carlos and Jorge on this day and in their priestly life. Teach me to lower my head and to put up with humiliations. If this year again I am not worthy of trust, there must be a reason; teach me to be free always, to say what I think… And mastery of my temper in the face of what seems wrong to me. Perhaps it is not as wrong as I think. Give me also your common sense, your apostolic zeal, and may I too be a saint like you. I insist, teach me to accept and embrace the crosses of every moment; once again, do not forget Tomás. Thank you for everything and, if you remember, ask also for my health”.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
His writings

December 2001

Guillermo left a little note for each of his Seminary companions that read:
“Please write on this sheet anything — a fault, a way of behaving, an attitude or whatever comes to mind — that you think I need to work on in my formation. Thank you for your sincerity”.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
His writings

Writing to a friend in April 2002 from the seminary

My grandmother died recently, she was already very old and ill, and amid the pain I felt a deep joy that she had been granted to live this grace. Such a feeling may seem strange, but I think this is part of the good that we Christians have. Sometimes I wonder what would become of us without this immense Love that surrounds us on all sides, to the point of making death that ambiguous moment of joyful sadness.

Never stop rejoicing in the faith that envelops you; it is our greatest wealth, and it is the Holy Door that plunges us fully into so much Love. Perhaps you will think I have been up in the clouds lately, but the truth is that, as at other times, the earth sometimes feels heavy to me, heavy in its relationships, institutions, formators, illness; but thanks to God the paschal light I told you about is carrying me forward at many moments. As you say: “I believe that mysteriously God wants me to keep living things that I would avoid” and this trust makes me very eager to keep seeking his face, which sometimes hides.

I have little left before I finish the seminary and every day I long more for the ordination to arrive. In this last period Jesus has been leading me little by little deeper into this great mystery of “being a priest of his Church”, and this experience helped me a lot to make fundamental choices that will aim more at the essence of this mystery and that were something like new calls that confirmed me in the vocation. Pray a lot to Jesus, through Catalina’s intercession, that this “priestly spirit” may keep flooding my heart.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
His writings

From his hospitalization at the Favaloro Foundation

From his hospital room at the Favaloro Foundation, he writes on 12 September to a friend:

I did not want to let this day pass without writing to you to share with you all this “magnificat” that I have inside, because I think you are one of the only people who can understand this very deep joy that I am living. I would like to be able to tell you everything I lived through these days, but I cannot because it is a bit difficult to write by letter. I simply want you to share with me the great love I have inside for Jesus and for his very human presence these days.

I offer this: for the souls in purgatory, that they may soon be close to God, pouring out his perfume on all men. For the evangelization that the Church carries out to win everyone for God. For the swift canonization of Cura Brochero, and that through his intercession and that of Mary the Virgin, many graces may be poured out on all the sick, above all patience and strength. Later he tells two priests who visit him that “he offers it for the Diocese and for vocations”.

Thank you, Jesus, for taking me by the hand when I was falling into the abyss. Thank you, Jesus, for sustaining me with your presence, so deeply felt and consoling, in those moments. Thank you, Jesus, for making me experience that in the end, when everything flees, you are the only thing that remains. Thank you, Jesus, for being beside me so humanly. Thank you, Jesus, for relieving me when nothing could relieve me any more. Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Mary, for this encounter. Jesus. Mary.
Thank you, Jesus, because everything is so simple. How simple, Jesus! Everything complex is reduced to something simple and ultimate: Jesus.

Our Father, if your strength fails and I cannot go on fighting the day… Or when hope grows so long, one wants to drink hope made of agony or of God, but when one does not know when it will arrive, it drags on and one does not quite know what one would like to grab hold of and be gone. In those moments it is harder to speak of Christian hope, precisely because one has it, and so we try to hope in that short hope that gradually grows still. That glass of water at the edge of a field. That small, good hope, but a little for humans and realists.

One has to make the journey with Jesus, a journey like… Many times one gets into Him, steps of love of the one who “loves”. Sleeping accompanied by Jesus, who is the truest thing, because he is the Messiah.

He came, simply there in his most walked-in and worn-out garment; the thing comes to an end and you see that He will keep accompanying.

Let us wait with Jesus… He is there in various ways and in this way this is an opportunity. Staying seated beside us humanly and simply.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
News

Solemnity of All Saints and the XIX Anniversary of the Servant of God

VideoEvent

Many thanks to everyone who was able to attend the Holy Mass for the Solemnity of All Saints and the XIX Anniversary of the Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio.

We also thank our Bishop Msgr. Damián Nannini, the priests and seminarians present, and also the Club Regatas Bella Vista for their commitment and availability.

We are sharing a short video.

Blessing of the plaque in memory of the Servant of God — Club de Regatas Bella Vista

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
News

XIX Anniversary of the Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Event

Monday 01.11.2021, Solemnity of All Saints. XIX Anniversary of the Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio. 7 p.m. Holy Mass and blessing of a plaque in memory of the Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio. Presided over by our Bishop Msgr. Damián Nannini. Club de Regatas Bella Vista, Av. Francia 1956, Buenos Aires Province. Not cancelled in case of rain.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
News

Third virtual regional meeting 2020. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

Video

We gathered to learn a little more about the life of Guillermo Muzzio, a step on earth toward holiness.

Source: Pastoral Juvenil Bs. As.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
News

Canonization process opened for a seminarian from Buenos Aires province

Press

Bishop Damián Nannini published the edict opening the cause and the investigation phase into his life and heroic virtues, reputation for holiness and miracles. “Willy” Muzzio died in 2002, aged 30, after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The Bishop of San Miguel, Monsignor Damián Gustavo Nannini, published an edict on the occasion of the opening of the cause for canonization of the young Guillermo Muzzio, a seminarian of the diocese.

This came after receiving the petition of Fr. José Francisco Occhiuzzi, postulator of the cause for the beatification and canonization of Muzzio, in which he formally requests the opening of the cause of the Servant of God and of the diocesan investigation into the “life and heroic virtues as well as the reputation for holiness and miracles” of the young seminarian.

The prelate invited the diocesan community to provide the postulator with “useful information from which we may infer, in some way, elements favorable or contrary to the cause”, including manuscripts, diaries, letters and any other private writings.

Monsignor Nannini ordered that this information be sent to the diocese by 28 September 2020, by email at cancilleria@obsanmiguel.org or delivered to the bishopric’s offices at Urquiza 1769, San Miguel.

With a smile for life

Guillermo “Willy” Muzzio was born on 25 February 1972. The third of six siblings, he moved from San Isidro to Bella Vista, in Buenos Aires province, shortly before turning 5. Youth camps in his parish and activities with the Aventura movement shaped his priestly vocation, which was fully confirmed after he went on missions to the Chaco of Salta with Wichí communities. In between, university and a terrible traffic accident with consequences and pain that he bore with immense inner peace. “One cannot complain about the pain because Saint Ignatius had surgery without anesthesia”, he would recall.

In the diocesan seminary of San Miguel the testimonies agree on his deep life of prayer: he got up before everyone else and went to the chapel to pray alone before the Blessed Sacrament, before the prayer of Lauds. He also stood out for his care for the poorest: every time someone came to the seminary door, he asked to be told, and he always attended to them with great affection.

Charity was the engine of his life. On one occasion he wrote: “Discovering through lived experience that only love makes us capable of living each day more fully, today I want to invite you who read this letter not to waste any more time on yourself. I want to invite you to do everything you do moved by love and thinking of the other who is beside you, in front of you or farther away”.

When he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, he asked for no exception to his life in the seminary.

Muzzio was able to receive formal admission to Holy Orders and share years of apostolate as a seminarian with different communities. But the illness worsened. And hospitalized for a bone-marrow transplant, he wrote: “I offer this for the souls in purgatory, that they may soon be close to God, pouring out his perfume on all men. For the evangelization that the Church carries out to win everyone for God. For the swift canonization of Cura Brochero, and that through his intercession and that of Mary the Virgin, many graces may be poured out on all the sick, above all patience and strength”. He also said he was doing it for the diocese and for priestly vocations.

After the transplant, a series of infections gradually put out his life. He departed to the Father’s House on 1 November 2002, the solemnity of All Saints. “With a smile for life” is the feeling with which he is remembered.

Source: Valores Religiosos

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Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
News

Msgr. Nannini encouraged following the example of the Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Press

Celebrating the solemnity of All Saints on Sunday 1 November, the Bishop of San Miguel, Monsignor Damián Nannini, remembered the Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio, a seminarian of the diocese.

On the solemnity of All Saints, Sunday 1 November, the diocese of San Miguel also remembered the 18th anniversary of the death of the Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio, a seminarian of the diocese who died in 2002.

At the beginning of the homily, the diocesan bishop, Monsignor Damián Nannini, said that “celebrating this solemnity invites us to celebrate the holiness of the Church in general, of those ‘saints next door’”, and mentioned that “at this time it is almost necessary to do so, because in the media ‘scandal sells more’, and these people who live well, who try to be faithful to God in the heroism of daily life, do not appear in the media”.

“That is why today it is good to celebrate the many saints in the Church, of yesterday, today and always. And likewise, it is good to celebrate the great call to holiness for the whole Church: God thought of us from all eternity so that we would be saints. That is our fundamental vocation and mission, which later branches out into different paths, but baptism has placed in us a seed, a potential for holiness”.

Remembering Guillermo Muzzio, he mentioned that holiness “is the constant attitude of living and accepting with joy the will of God in our life”, and in the words of the Servant of God himself, “doing God’s will and being happy is the same thing”, the young seminarian used to say.

Monsignor Nannini affirmed that “it is possible to live this even in the most difficult moments, and the Gospel of the Beatitudes presents it to us”, and he asked: “How can someone afflicted be happy? Because he has the consolation of God”, he affirmed.

“In one of his writings, Guillermo said that when everything goes well, doing God’s will is simple and easy. But when the cross and difficulties come, accepting God’s will with joy is where the heroism and the sign of holiness lie”, recalled the Bishop of San Miguel. In this sense, he referred to the original teaching of the Church that “God showed to Guillermo and that he was able to live”.

“With a deep smile, Guillermo accepted God’s will, and he did so with his illness”, he said, recalling the Servant of God, while encouraging the community to follow this path.

“Also in ordinary things, in the seriousness with which he took on his formation and his vocation. He had a simple and profound holiness. There is a secret of holiness there that we have to ask Guillermo to help us live, above all those who are being formed for the priesthood”, he continued, addressing the seminarians.

Finally he mentioned that Muzzio dreamed “of the same Church that Pope Francis desires today. It is incredible because it was 20 years earlier, but he wanted a Church with more joy, more closeness and fewer judgments”. For this reason he asked the Servant of God for that for the diocese of San Miguel: “We ask him to intercede so that we may come closer to this ideal and so that, personally too, we may rescue our original call to holiness”.

Source: AICA

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Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
News

Opening of the canonization process of the Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Video

Guillermo Muzzio, an Argentine seminarian, on the way to holiness.

Today, on the Solemnity of All Saints, the Argentine diocese of San Miguel formally began the process of beatification of another young seminarian, Guillermo Muzzio, who died 18 years ago, on 1 November 2002.

Guillermo was born on 25 February 1972 in Argentina. He was the third of the six children of Carlos and Carola. Through the youth camps run by his parish and the missions with Wichí communities in the Chaco of Salta, God gradually showed him his vocation to the priesthood.

He studied at university, worked, and his life filled with friends. In 1994 he suffered a traffic accident that left him with permanent pain that had to be treated in a rehabilitation center. Nevertheless, “Willy”, as his friends called him, did not lose his smile and accepted everything with patience.

In 1996 he entered the diocesan Seminary Archangel Saint Michael: he lived fraternity with his companions in an exemplary way and got up before everyone else to pray alone before the Blessed Sacrament. He also stood out for his care for the poorest, charity being the engine of his life.

In 1998 Willy Muzzio was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Without dramatizing his situation or playing the victim, he did not lose his usual smile and never asked for an exception in the life of the Seminary; he worried no one. Throughout three years of various treatments, he continued with the life of the Seminary. In 2001 he was admitted to Holy Orders in the Cathedral of San Miguel. The following year he suffered a relapse of his illness; the bone-marrow transplant was considered a last alternative. He lived this time with great serenity and confidence in Heaven, abandoning himself into the hands of “Tata” God…

As the illness worsened, in 2002, he was hospitalized for a bone-marrow transplant. After the transplant, a series of infections gradually put out his life and he died on 1 November 2002, Solemnity of All Saints. Since 2007 his remains have rested in the Cemetery of the diocesan Seminary of San Miguel. In 2017 the diocese of San Miguel (Argentina) began the preliminary stages for the start of the cause for beatification and canonization of the now recognized Servant of God.

At LyFC we are glad to be promoters of his cause.

Source: Liturgia y Fe Católica

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Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
News

A seminarian on the road to the altars

Press

The Bishop of San Miguel (Buenos Aires) has published the edict opening the cause for canonization of the young Guillermo Muzzio, a seminarian in the diocese.

As aica reports, Guillermo “Willy” Muzzio was born on 25 February 1972. The third of six siblings, he took part in youth camps with his parish, and activities with the Aventura movement shaped his priestly vocation, which was fully confirmed after going on missions.

On one occasion, when he had a serious accident, he bore the pain with great inner peace and without complaining. The testimonies agree on his deep life of prayer; he also stood out for his care for the poorest, whom he always attended with great affection. When he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, he asked for no exception to his life in the seminary.

Muzzio was able to receive formal admission to Holy Orders. But the illness worsened. And hospitalized for a bone-marrow transplant, he wrote: “I offer this for the souls in purgatory, that they may soon be close to God, pouring out his perfume on all men. For the evangelization that the Church carries out to win everyone for God. For the swift canonization of Cura Brochero, and that through his intercession and that of Mary the Virgin, many graces may be poured out on all the sick, above all patience and strength”.

Source: Jóvenes católicos

View post Nota relacionada (AICA)

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
News

Cause opened for a seminarian who always went about with a smile

Video

The Bishopric of San Miguel (Argentina) announced the start of the cause for beatification of the young seminarian Guillermo Muzzio, who was known for always wearing a smile.

Source: HM Televisión

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
News

The diocese of San Miguel opens the canonization process of a seminarian

Press

The Bishop of San Miguel, Monsignor Damián Gustavo Nannini, published an edict on the occasion of opening the cause for canonization of the young Guillermo Muzzio, a seminarian in the diocese. This came after receiving the petition of Fr. José Francisco Occhiuzzi, postulator of the cause for the beatification and canonization of Muzzio, in which he formally requests the opening of the cause of the Servant of God and of the diocesan investigation into the “life and heroic virtues as well as the reputation for holiness and miracles” of the young seminarian. (Source: Agencia Informativa Católica Argentina).

The prelate invited the diocesan community to provide the postulator with “useful information from which we may infer, in some way, elements favorable or contrary to the cause”, including manuscripts, diaries, letters and any other private writings.

Monsignor Nannini ordered that this information be sent to the diocese by 28 September 2020, by email at cancilleria@obsanmiguel.org or delivered to the bishopric’s offices at Urquiza 1769, San Miguel.

With a smile for life

Guillermo “Willy” Muzzio was born on 25 February 1972. The third of six siblings, he moved from San Isidro to Bella Vista, in Buenos Aires province, shortly before turning 5. Youth camps in his parish and activities with the Aventura movement shaped his priestly vocation, which was fully confirmed after he went on missions to the Chaco of Salta with Wichí communities. In between, university and a terrible traffic accident with consequences and pain that he bore with immense inner peace. “One cannot complain about the pain because Saint Ignatius had surgery without anesthesia”, he would recall.

In the diocesan seminary of San Miguel the testimonies agree on his deep life of prayer: he got up before everyone else and went to the chapel to pray alone before the Blessed Sacrament, before the prayer of Lauds. He also stood out for his care for the poorest: every time someone came to the seminary door, he asked to be told, and he always attended to them with great affection.

Charity was the engine of his life. On one occasion he wrote: “Discovering through lived experience that only love makes us capable of living each day more fully, today I want to invite you who read this letter not to waste any more time on yourself. I want to invite you to do everything you do moved by love and thinking of the other who is beside you, in front of you or farther away”.

When he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, he asked for no exception to his life in the seminary.

Muzzio was able to receive formal admission to Holy Orders and share years of apostolate as a seminarian with different communities. But the illness worsened. And hospitalized for a bone-marrow transplant, he wrote: “I offer this for the souls in purgatory, that they may soon be close to God, pouring out his perfume on all men. For the evangelization that the Church carries out to win everyone for God. For the swift canonization of Cura Brochero, and that through his intercession and that of Mary the Virgin, many graces may be poured out on all the sick, above all patience and strength”. He also said he was doing it for the diocese and for priestly vocations.

After the transplant, a series of infections gradually put out his life. He departed to the Father’s House on All Saints’ Day 2002. “With a smile for life” is the feeling with which he is remembered.

Text of the edict

Prot. No. 26/2020

On the 21st day of November 2019, Presbyter José Francisco Occhiuzzi, lawfully appointed Postulator of the Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of the young Guillermo Muzzio, Seminarian, by the Diocese of San Miguel, Petitioner of the cause, submitted to me the Petition, requesting the opening of the Cause of the Servant of God and of the Diocesan Investigation into the life and heroic virtues as well as the reputation for holiness and miracles of the said Servant of God.

In accordance with what is established in number 11b of the Norms to be observed in diocesan investigations into the Causes of Saints, published on 7 February 1983 by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, with this Edict I make public the Petition of the Postulator and we invite all the faithful to provide me with useful information from which we may infer, in some way, elements favorable or contrary to the cause.

Furthermore, after gathering, in accordance with the legal provisions, all the writings attributed to him, we order, with this Edict, that any writing in anyone’s possession that has the young man as its author be sent with due care, if it has not already been handed over to the Postulator of the Cause.

Let us remember that by “writings” we refer not only to printed works but also to manuscripts, diaries, letters and any other private writing. Those who wish to keep the originals may send a duly authenticated copy.

This information, of any kind, like any other certain and verifiable information, must be communicated to the Reverend Chancellor of this Diocese by 28 September 2020 at the following address: cancilleria@obsanmiguel.org, or be delivered to the Seat of the Bishopric of San Miguel, calle Urquiza 1769.

I attest to this.

Given in San Miguel, on the 24th of June in the year of the Lord 2020.+

Source: Radio Encuentro en el Valle

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Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
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Cause opened for a seminarian who always went about with a smile

Press

The “petition” was requested on 21 November 2019 by Fr. José Francisco Occhiuzzi, appointed postulator of the Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of Muzzio, from the Bishop of San Miguel, Msgr. Damián Nannini.

In this way, “the opening of the Cause of the Servant of God and of the Diocesan Investigation into the life and heroic virtues as well as the reputation for holiness and miracles of the said Servant of God” was requested, the edict of 24 June of this year described.

“We invite all the faithful to provide me with useful information from which we may infer, in some way, elements favorable or contrary to the cause”, as well as “all the writings attributed to him”, said Msgr. Damián Nannini.

“Let us remember that by ‘writings’ we refer not only to printed works but also to manuscripts, diaries, letters and any other private writing. Those who wish to keep the originals may send a duly authenticated copy”, the edict specified.

The information and materials must be sent to the Bishopric of San Miguel by 28 September of this year or sent to the email cancilleria@obsanmiguel.org

Brief biography

Guillermo Muzzio Diehl was born on 25 February 1972 in Argentina. He was the third of six siblings.

His participation in youth camps with his parish, activities with the Aventura movement and the missions with Wichí communities in El Chaco were the experiences that awakened his vocation to religious life.

He studied at university and had a traffic accident that left him with permanent pain. Nevertheless, he knew how to bear it with inner peace. “One cannot complain about the pain because Saint Ignatius had surgery without anesthesia”, recalled “Willy”, as those closest to him called him.

In the Seminary Archangel Saint Michael the testimonies agree on his deep life of prayer, since he got up before everyone else to pray alone before the Blessed Sacrament.

He also stood out for his care for the poorest, charity being the engine of his life.

Muzzio was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma but received formal admission to Holy Orders.

As the illness worsened he was hospitalized for a bone-marrow transplant. On that occasion Muzzio wrote: “I offer this for the souls in Purgatory, that they may soon be close to God, pouring out his perfume on all men”.

“For the evangelization that the Church carries out to win everyone for God. For the swift canonization of Cura Brochero, and that through his intercession and that of Mary the Virgin, many graces may be poured out on all the sick, above all patience and strength”, he also asked for the diocese and for priestly vocations.

After the transplant a series of infections gradually put out his life and he died on 1 November 2002, All Saints’ Day.

“With a smile for life” is the feeling with which he is remembered.

Source: Aciprensa

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Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
News

Song for Guillermo Muzzio

Music

So loved by many that even those who were not lucky enough to know you feel you very close, feel you are their friend.

Dear Guillermo Muzzio, without a doubt you are ours and you are more than ever among us. San Miguel misses you. San Miguel prays to you.

With all the love in the world, we share a little piece of the song that was thought out for you.

Thank you, José Luis Vargas, for sharing your verses and the music that springs from your heart. We eagerly and excitedly await the whole song.

Thank you for letting the community of Santa Bernardita Chapel hear it in the front row.

Source: Santa Bernardita Capilla

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Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
News

Two seminarians from Argentina and Brazil on the road to the altars

Press

The testimony of both enlightens many seminarians. Their causes have begun.

Both were born in the 1970s. Both left us when the 21st century was taking its first steps. Guillermo Muzzio, from San Miguel, Argentina, and Guido Schäffer, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were young men of many friends, of sports, of Catholic youth movements, of mission, of closeness to the poorest, of radiant charity and zeal for souls.

Death, for different reasons, reached them at a young age, before they were ordained priests. Their funerals were very well attended, and within a few years those who knew them bore witness to the impression of having known a saint. Although their causes are still in a preliminary phase or have only just begun, the testimony of both lights the way for many seminarians who, like them, live their formation and preparation for the priesthood with immense faith and joy.

Guillermo Muzzio

Guillermo “Willy” Muzzio was born on 25 February 1972. The third of six siblings, he moved from San Isidro to Bella Vista, in Buenos Aires province, shortly before turning five. Youth camps in his parish and activities with the Aventura movement accompanied him as a priestly vocation took shape, which was fully confirmed after he went on missions to the Chaco of Salta with Wichí communities. In between, University, the things all young people live through, and a terrible traffic accident with harsh consequences and pain that he bore with immense inner peace – One cannot complain about the pain because Saint Ignatius had surgery without anesthesia, he would recall.

In the Diocesan Seminary of San Miguel the testimonies agree on his deep life of prayer: he got up before everyone else and went to the chapel to pray alone before the Blessed Sacrament, before the prayer of Lauds. He also stood out for his care for the poorest: every time someone came to the seminary door, he asked to be told, and he always attended to them with great affection.

Charity was the engine of his life. On one occasion he wrote: “Discovering through lived experience that only love makes us capable of living each day more fully, today I want to invite you who read this letter not to waste any more time on yourself. I want to invite you to do everything you do moved by love and thinking of the other who is beside you, in front of you or farther away”.

When he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, he asked for no exception to his life in the seminary. He always tried to show himself with a smile.

Guillermo was able to receive formal admission to Holy Orders and share years of apostolate as a seminarian with different communities. But the illness worsened. And hospitalized for a bone-marrow transplant, he wrote: “I offer this for the souls in purgatory, that they may soon be close to God, pouring out his perfume on all men. For the evangelization that the Church carries out to win everyone for God. For the swift canonization of Cura Brochero, and that through his intercession and that of Mary the Virgin, many graces may be poured out on all the sick, above all patience and strength”. He also said he was doing it for the diocese and for priestly vocations.

After the transplant, a series of infections gradually put out the light of his life among us. He departed to the Father’s House on All Saints’ Day 2002. “With a smile for life” is the feeling with which he has been remembered ever since, and also the title chosen for a book that, a year after his death, his godfather published, gathering testimonies from friends: http://ebook.myspecialbook.com/books/flut/.

In December 2017 the diocese began the preliminary stages for the start of the cause for beatification and canonization.

Guido Schäffer

Guido Schäffer was born on 22 May 1974, in Volta Redonda, Rio de Janeiro. He grew up in Copacabana, passionate about the beach and the sea, and decided to study medicine, like his father. Like Willy Muzzio, as a young man he developed an intense apostolic life in various youth and prayer groups, with a special interest in serving the poorest. Before entering the seminary, the testimonies show a great doctor, concerned for both the body and the soul of his patients.

They say there was a man who was gravely ill, his body covered in sores and his skin largely peeled away. Dr. Guido invited him to go to a priest for the sacrament of reconciliation, but the sick man told him that he did not kill or steal, so he had no sins. To which the doctor replied: “Look, I do not kill or steal either, but I am full of sins”. And he began to tell him some of them. The sick man finally went to a priest and confessed.

Guido brought his joy and charity to the seminary, from where, like Guillermo, he kept a strong bond with his friends and with the poorest. They remember that there he never spoke ill of anyone, and was very skilled at calming arguments. And he often dealt with drug addicts and alcoholics; they say he had time for everyone. “His example edified and corrected me”, said a Missionary of Charity who knew him.

He died on 1 May 2009 after suffering a blow and losing consciousness while surfing at a beach that today bears his name. He was one year short of ordination.

In January 2015 his cause for beatification was opened, and since October 2017 the documentation has been in Rome.

The Church’s timing for causes, which hold wisdom and prudence and demand patience, will tell whether Guido Schäffer and Guillermo Muzzio ever reach the altars. In the meantime, they are already a light for young vocations in the seminaries.

Source: Aleteia

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Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
News

First Symposium

EventVideo

First symposium on the life and message of Guillermo Muzzio.

Holiness in Pope Francis’s Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate, vocation, family, friendship, the Will of God.

A presentation of his life and his message, from different angles and by different speakers.

Flyer of the First Symposium on the life and message of Guillermo Muzzio, 1 November 2018, Auditorium Hall of the Cathedral of San Miguel
First Symposium on the life and message of Guillermo Muzzio (1/11/2018)

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
News

Interview with Father Francisco José Occhiuzzi

Video

Interview with Father Francisco José Occhiuzzi on Canal Provincial, a channel that covers news from the localities of San Miguel, José C. Paz, Malvinas Argentinas, Pilar, Moreno, Escobar, Gral. Rodríguez, Luján, Mercedes, Suipacha and Lincoln.

Servant of God Guillermo Muzzio

Seminarian of the Diocese of San Miguel

25 February 1972 – 1 November 2002
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