LIFE IS CHANGED BY THIS HOLY DOCTOR

Is there any end to holy doctors in our modern times?  In all fields they are an example to other physicians that it is not impossible to be brilliant in their area of expertise and holy at the same time.

Servant of God Giancarlo Rastelli was born in 1933 in Pescara, Italy. He received his medical degree from the University of Parma, where he graduated with honors.  He met his wife to be, Anna Anghileri, in 1959 when she was 19 years old. In 1961 he won a NATO scholarship and went to Rochester, Minnesota to work at the famous Mayo Clinic.  While in America, he continued to correspond with Anna almost daily. On August 11, 1964, Giancarlo returned to Italy and one day later they married. They traveled to the United States where they settled, raising a happy, loving family. Anne and Giancarlo had one aughter, Antonella, who was 4 when her father died.

A few days after the honeymoon, Doctor Rastelli was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. He made no mention of his illness to anyone, not even his parents. To his wife he said: "Believe in God and in the Mayo", then he quickly left whistling Mozart and Beethoven. 

 

After only a few years, he was appointed head of Cardiovascular Research at the Mayo. Giancarlo had an interesting and productive profession, and the future looked extremely promising. He developed a classification of atrioventricular canal and a novel surgical procedure that revolutionized the management of children with congenital heart disease. His work was ahead of its time and laid the foundation for the treatment of complex congenital cardiac anomalies.

These discoveries earned him three gold medals in Washington, the dual Italian-American citizenship and the name of Rastelli I and Rastelli II to his two methods of operating techniques .

He died at the Methodist Hospital in Rochester on February 2, 1970 at the age of 36 years. On September 30, 2005, the Holy See granted permission to start the cause of beatification of Giancarlo Rastelli.

He was known to always have at the center of his thoughts the dignity of  the sick, treating them as if they were Christ. 

Around the world departments of hospitals and schools, were dedicated to him as well as a road to Parma.  In the Mayo Clinic is a large plaque with the inscription: "In memory of Giancarlo Rastelli by the surgeon residents who considered him highly as a surgeon , creative artist, teacher and friend ". 

He was buried with honor in the university chapel of the cemetery of Parma. On the tablet is written "Vita mutatur, non tollitur" (life is changed, not ended).