Father Placido Cortese

On 27 January, the International day to Commemorate the Victims of the Holocaust, instituted in 2005 by the General Assembly of the United Nations to mark their liberation from Auschwitz concentration camp, the friars of the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua remember their fellow friar, the Venerable Placido Cortese (1907-1944), who was the director of the Messenger of Saint Anthony magazine.

On 21 January a Stolperstein by artist Gunter Demnig was placed in front of the Basilica of Saint Anthony, precisely on the corner between Piazza del Santo and Via Orto Botanico. The Stolperstein was placed there in memory of Father Placido Cortese, the friar of the Basilica and director of the Messenger of Saint Anthony during the Second World War.