fra' claudio 7

Fra' Claudio Granzotto led a humble and penitential life... 

also dedicating himself to begging, which he even practiced on the streets of Santa Lucia where he was known as an affirmed and esteemed professor.

In the years of the Second World War, Fra' Claudio intensified his dedication to the most needy. He gave up meals to offer his lunch to the poor, gave them the wood to heat his workshop, and to get some heat himself, he burned damp paper that only produced smoke.

Already as a novice... 

he was convinced that art could go very well with serving the pots, the sink, with looking after the pigs or the chicken coop, taking care of the vegetable garden, the convent workshops, the sick and the poor.

While in Vittorio Veneto, sculpting the Christ awaiting the resurrection, professor Giuseppe Modolo once said: 'You're slow, my Riccardo, it seems like you do not want to finish it'. 

Fra' Claudio: 'What do you want, Bepi? I have many other things to look forward to: soup for the poor, dishes to wash, the refectory, the pigs.'

Prof. Modolo: 'Couldn't they exempt you? You are a sculptor!'

Fra' Claudio: 'I would ask you for these occupations! It is more important to me to be a good religious than be a good artist. I have come to experience the same pleasure in working the Christ as in cleaning the dishes. And not because he turned off art, but because I believe I have overcome it!'

And so 'Oltre l'Arte' [Beyond Art] would also be the title of his first biography... 

written by his brother Father E. Urbani.

[wiki]