The Mayo Clinic Has Another Saint in the Works: Dr. Giancarlo Rastelli

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He was born in Italy, of course. Those Italians may have lost their hold on the Papacy, but they still seem to control the votes in the Communion of Saints!

Last August, I blogged on St Riccardo Pampuri, an Italian medical doctor who served for a time at the Mayo Clinic Now, I see that the cause for the canonization of another Italian, Dr. Giancarlo Rastelli, who served at the Mayo Clinic as a pioneer pediatric heart surgeon until his death in 1969 from Hodgkin's Disease, has been opened in Italy.

Giancarlo Rastelli, M.D., a Mayo Clinic physician who developed a cardiac procedure for congenital heart disease among children, is being considered for beatification, the first step toward sainthood.

The late Dr. Rastelli died of cancer in 1970 at age 36. He was educated in Italy and came to Mayo Clinic in the 1960s. He was appointed head of cardiovascular surgical research at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, at age 34. He conducted his research in cardiovascular surgery at Mayo during the 1960s and developed Rastelli 1 and Rastelli 2, procedures credited with saving numerous lives of children with heart disease. He was awarded two gold medals by the American Medical Association and did a great deal of his research while suffering from Hodgkin's disease.

In an article appearing in the official diocese newspaper, Diocese of Winona Bishop Bernard Harrington wrote that Dr. Rastelli's efforts allowed "thousands of children to live who would probably not have survived." Bishop Silvio Bonicelli of Parma, Italy, is leading the effort to have Dr. Rastelli canonized. A proven miracle must be recognized for beatification. To be a saint, a second proven miracle must be presented and verified. [...Snip] Mayo Clinic