THE LORD'S ENTREPRENEUR

I am constantly telling people that the world today needs more holy lay people- in all walks of life and in all countries. Here is an example of one such man, one who gave his riches to honor the Lord.

VENERABLE UBERTO MORI was an Italian layman who served as a lecturer in Bologna and was also an entrepreneur. He was a member of the Third Order of St Francis and was known for his simple lifestyle, the purity in which he lived, and his veneration of the Mother of God.

Uberto was born in Modena, Italy in1926. His father was a military officer, and his position required his family to move often when Uberto was young. Uberto served in the Italian army during World War II  at age 17 and was instrumental in allowing 107 Jewish children to escape to safety prior to the arrival of the Germans. 

Uberto’s father died of a tumor in 1944, and Uberto left the military at that time. When he graduated from high school in 1944, he went on to study mechanical engineering in Bologna. He married in 1952. He and his wife Gilda had a son and a daughter in the 1950s. In 1961 Maria Manuela was born but she died thirteen months after birth due to a severe illness. In 1958, Uberto went to visit Padre Pio, and the encounter increased his devotion to the Blessed Mother.

With Maria Manuela

Uberto earned a degree in industrial engineering in 1959. Having been financially successful as an entrepreneur, Uberto not long after he received his degree started to teach at the University of Bologna. He became a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Technology.  He founded a series of innovative and successful ceramics companies. The success of this business gave him great wealth, but also convinced him that his sole aim was to give praise to the Lord in all circumstances. "If it pleases the Lord to place us in the midst of the world to work with kilns, may His will be done."

With Gilda & Two Children

He and his wife made a pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1963 and became tertiary Franciscans in 1968. The couple supported the development of a center for spirituality in Italy, a mission project in central Africa, and the establishment of a television ministry to further the proclamation of the gospel.

Uberto suffered a heart attack in 1987. The result of this was that he was left crippled. Despite the fact that he was left crippled, the Gospel enlightened him and the rosary supported him during his sufferings. He had open heart surgery in August 1989 and while the surgery seemed to have gone well,  Uberto unexpectedly died while recuperating in the hospital on September 6, 1989. The Diocese of Modena-Nonantola opened its inquiry for canonization in 1997.

 'The world can be different from that in which others live, as long as you look at it with eyes that see" wrote Uberto. In the Fifties, the esteem and standing surrounding him increased thanks to the professional creativity and industrial innovations which, still in use today in the industry, radically changed ceramic working methods. A creativity lived to the full, at work and outside, in the communication projects, in the numerous Marian works in which he was involved. 

With Pope Paul VI