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SERVANT of GOD   ANTONIO MARIA MANSI  was born in London on March 9, 1896, to Maria Michela and Bonaventura Mansi from Ravello (Salerno).

He was sent to Bagnoregio (Viterbo) for high school studies, and to Assisi for the novitiate. On the tomb of St. Francis on 4 October 1914 he made his simple profession. After the novitiate, Fra Antonio was sent to Montottone (Marche) for the philosophical course.

For theology he was sent to Rome to the SeraphicCollege, where he met St. Maximilian Kolbe, with whom he became a friend.  Together with the Saint and other seminarians, he was a co-founder of the Militia Immaculata in Rome. 

On March 19, 1918,  Fra Antonio Mansi made his solemn profession in the hands of His Eminence Cardinal Boschi and was ordained a priest on May 9, 1918 in the chapel of the college.

As a man of culture, Fra Mansi spoke English, French, Latin well and knew Greek. He successfully cultivated poetry, song and music, in which he perfected himself at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome, showing a lively talent

He fell ill with the Spanish flu, which he contracted while nursing a Father. He died on October 31, 1918, offering his life for the good of the Church, for Pope Benedict XV and for the Order and invoking the name of Mary.

Father Kolbe wrote in his Diary: "On October 31, 1918, in the morning, Fra Antonio Mansi fell asleep in the Lord with a very edifying death. Before dying he promised me to "make me walk straight with good or bad." He cultivated in a sublime way humility, obedience, patience, simplicity, religious poverty, brotherly love, commitment to the most exact observance of the rules, the most lively faith, the most tender attachment to prayer, to the glory of God, to the Church, to the Holy Father and to the Order, a firm, unshakable hope ".

VENERABLE MELCHIOR FORDONwas born in 1862 in Grodno (now Belarus) to a family of noble roots. He was first educated at home by his mother, a school teacher in order to avoid a Russian school..  His father was an architect.

Fra Melchior began his ministerial life as a diocesan priest for the Diocese of Vilnius. He served as parish priest of various locations and as guardian over a house for constricted priests deemed dangerous to the Russian state. He was very active  during the socialist revolution in Russia , collecting signatures among the clergy and the faithful asking for the intervention of Pope St. Pius X in the case of the archbishop of Vilnius, interned in 1907 by the Tsarist police. 

His activities exposed him to the Tsarist authorities  and they soon decided to ban him from pursuing pastoral activities in the Russian empire. He was moved from the district to more remote areas. 

He was stationed at Grodnoduring WWI, where he saved the lives of 15 firemen from execution, thought to be Russian Spies by the German authorities, guaranteeing their innocence with his life.  The group of arrested firefighters included: six Catholics, three Orthodox Christians and four Jews.

 The officer spared their lives, stating that if it turned out to be true that they were Russian spies, then he would be shot. The next day, a fire broke out in the city, which the Germans called on previously arrested firemen to extinguish it. After suppressing the fire, the German commander withdrew the earlier order for their execution and ordered them to be released from custody.[

After 23 years of priesthood, and with the consent of the diocese, Fr. Melchior discerned to enter the Conventual Franciscans in Kracow.

He was a collaborator of St. Maxmilian, who in 1922 transferred the publishing of the  magazine from Kraków to Grodno. He served him with his advice, gave his full support to his publishing house, which later, in 1927, was transferred to Niepokalanów . In addition, he was also the confessor of the future saint, who called him a "holy soul" as well as  the brothers working in the publishing house, including Fra  Zenon Żebrowski, later a missionary of Japan.