Palermo chooses memory as a concrete gesture and dedicates a street to the name of Brother Biagio Conte, a symbolic figure of city solidarity. Three years after the death of the lay missionary, a portion of Via Tiro a Segno is officially named after him: it is the stretch between Corso dei Mille and Via Archirafi, in the heart of that urban area which hosted and continues to host a fundamental part of his work, the Citadel of the poor of the Mission Speranza e Carità.
The ceremony and the institutional value of the dedication
The dedication ceremony brought together civil and religious institutions, together with representatives of the mission founded by Biagio Conte. Present were the mayor Roberto Lagalla, the president of the city council Giulio Tantillo, the vice mayor and councilor for toponymy Giampiero Cannella, the parish priest Don Pino Vitrano and numerous representatives of the city’s public life. For the mayor, the bond between Biagio Conte and Palermo is deep and permanent: dedicating a road that leads to one of the symbolic places of his action means recognizing the value of a testimony capable of impacting the collective conscience, transforming solidarity into daily practice.
Toponymy as a tool of collective identity
A concept taken up by councilor Cannella, who underlined the role of toponymy as an instrument of shared identity. Naming a street after Brother Biagio represents an act that delivers to future generations the memory of a man capable of making charity concrete, who contributed to the creation of a more human and supportive Palermo. Along the same lines is the president of the Sicilian Region Renato Schifano, who remembered Biagio Conte as the moral heritage of the entire community, a coherent example of attention towards the least fortunate and a constant invitation not to look the other way.
From civil memory to urban regeneration
The dedication also takes on a broader urban value. As highlighted by the president of the II District Giuseppe Federico, the new via Biagio Conte is located in an area affected by important transformation processes: on the one hand via Archirafi, destined for progressive pedestrianization as part of the project for the university campus; on the other, the connection with Piazza Sant’Erasmo and the port, increasingly central to tourist development. This context also includes the abandoned building at number 60, the so-called “eco-monster”, for which the administration is evaluating a recovery for public use, with spaces intended for associations or for the district itself.
A film to tell the legacy of Biagio Conte
Civil memory is now also accompanied by cinematic storytelling. Filming has started in Palermo for the TV film “On the Path of Francesco. The Life of Biagio Conte”, produced by Anele in collaboration with Rai Fiction and directed by Costanza Quatriglio. The screenplay bears the signature of Stefano Rulli and Costanza Quatriglio, with the direct involvement of the Hope and Charity Mission and the patronage of the National Committee for the Eighth Centenary of the Death of Saint Francis of Assisi.
A modern Saint Francis, born in Palermo
The film, starring Alessio Vassallo in the role of Biagio Conte and with the participation of Donatella Finocchiaro and Antonio Catania, tells the parable of a “modern Saint Francis”, born in Palermo in the 1960s into a family of entrepreneurs and capable of abandoning a comfortable life to choose poverty alongside the homeless. The story begins with his disappearance and the research for the program “Who has seen it?”, follows the pilgrimage to Assisi, the return to the city and the birth of a community alongside the last of the central station.
A testimony that continues into the present
A legacy that continues through the Mission Speranza e Carità, founded in 1993 and today led by Don Pino Vitrano, a point of reference for the assistance and social reintegration of the most vulnerable. Between a street that bears his name and a film intended for the general public, Palermo renews its bond with Biagio Conte, choosing to preserve his lesson of humanity within urban space and in collective narration.
Precisely from the missionarydisperanzaecarita.org website, here are some images dedicated to the missionary from Palermo:
