Giuseppe "Pino" Puglisi was born in 1937 in Brancaccio, a poor district of Palermo, Sicily. His father was a shoemaker and his mother a seamstress.
Giuseppe "Pino" Puglisi was born in 1937 in Brancaccio, a poor district of Palermo, Sicily. His father was a shoemaker and his mother a seamstress. He was ordained a priest in 1960 and taught religion in schools. As parish priest of Godrano from 1970 to 1978 he helped end a feud between families.
In 1990 he returned to Brancaccio as parish priest of San Gaetano. To steer young people away from crime he founded the "Padre Nostro" (Our Father) Centre in 1993. His work brought death threats from the Mafia.
On his fifty-sixth birthday, September 15, 1993, he was shot dead outside his home by a Mafia hitman, Salvatore Grigoli, after giving him a last smile. He was beatified in Palermo in 2013 as a martyr.
The Church has declared Pino Puglisi Blessed.