LUIGI VENUTA. - Priest, born in Nicosia on 3 January 1823, died in New Jersey (U.S.A.) in 1872.
Attached to the parish of S. Rocco in Palermo, in January 1848 he was among the first ecclesiastics to join the uprising of an oblate and took an active part in the conflicts of those days, exhorting and encouraging the fighters from the barricades. Elected deputy for his native constituency to the Sicilian Parliament, he was later sent to Nicosia, where he energetically restored public order. He asked, however, not to be distracted from his priestly ministry by political duties and wished to follow, as military chaplain, the few Sicilian troops sent to the fields of Lombardy. The Bourbon restoration in the island also affected V., who was arrested twice; released from prison and placed under special surveillance in December 1849, after the second detention he was given the choice between confinement and exile (March 1850).
He chose exile and went to the United States, where he spent the rest of his brief life, carrying out admirable apostolic work among European immigrants and
Vera Cruz, Archdiocese of - Church with bell tower (19th century). Vera Cruz.