Religion, in a period replete with mourning and tragedies such as that of war, could be of great support to the soldiers and the civilian population of Sesto/Sexten, as evidenced by the devotion to the provisional church called the Waldkapelle, but sometimes it also allowed itself to be exploited for propaganda purposes and support for the war effort. Even on the plateau of the Three Peaks, parish priests and chaplains such as the chaplain Josef Hosp on the Austrian side and Don Pietro Zangrando on the Italian side supported with conviction the cause of their respective staffs, convincing the soldiers of the goodness of what they were doing and not, as Pope Benedict XV said on August 1, 1917, that the war was “a useless massacre”.
Don Pietro Zangrando (also known as Don Piero) was born in Perarolo in 1878. Ordained in 1903, at the outbreak of war, he became a military chaplain and was assigned to the 7th Alpini Regiment, in particular to the Val Piave Battalion, where he was nicknamed “the priest of the Alpini”. He received a bronze medal for military valor, with the following commendation: “Heedless of the danger, he went to the battle line to administer to the wounded and collect and bury the dead, setting a good example of courage and self-denial. Toblinger Riedl [Forcella di Toblin], Sextenstein [Sasso di Sesto], 19 August 1915”.1Zorzi, Ettore. Don Pietro Zangrando. Roma, X Reggimento Alpini, 1940. Don Pietro is mentioned several times in the diary of the alpino Paolo Barzan, who remembers him for his patriotic sermons and his speeches encouraging the Alpine Corps in the summer of 1915:
“On June 29, that is, St. Peter and Paul, Don Pietro Rev. Parish Priest of Perarolo recited Holy Mass accompanied by the music of the 50th Infantry Regiment. After the mass, the music intoned the Royal Hymn, the hymn of Mammei [sic], the hymn of Garibaldi and other patriotic hymns. He ended this ceremony with great enthusiasm and with the cry of Viva il Re, Viva l’Italia”.
“August 6 we inaugurated a shelter built by us, our priest to the left of this celebrated the Holy Mass then making a patriotic speech and great incomium to all the soldiers of the 268 Alpini who were able to support the famous combat of June 7 Monte Piana. In his sermon this parish priest said he remembered his years as a child when he saw our Alpini companies passing through Perarolo that he had admired them so many times, but he said today I have reached them and I am glorious and happy to be together. All these ceremonies are done while the cannon is continuously thundering.”
“12 September 1915 Today we inaugurated the “villetta” [new barrack], our priest celebrated Holy Mass. At Santus our cannon fired eight shots. After the mass our priest, that is, Don Pietro made a beautiful sermon of patriotic words. I said to myself: Don Matteo is good at his sermons, but also our Don Pietro, already called father of the Alpini, is no less. This day our officers offered us a special mess that is polenta and cod and half a liter of wine”.2Museo Diaristico Nazionale, Pieve Santo Stefano, Diario dell’alpino Paolo Barzan, ADN_ MG/T3, 29 giugno, 6 agosto, 12 settembre.
In all countries, during the war, various religious communities were instrumentalized at the patriotic-national level and, in individual cases, their representatives themselves participated in the war effort. The experienced mountaineer chaplain Hosp of the Standschützen Baon Innsbruck I undertook numerous patrols on the rocks and slopes of the Three Peaks Plateau at the beginning of the war and participated actively and masterfully in the planning and military management of the ascent and shelter routes. On his initiative, a permanent observation post was set up on top of Torre di Toblin/Toblinger Knoten. An entry in the war diary of the 59th Infantry Regiment “Erzherzog Rainer” reports the use and military commitment of the chaplain: “Chaplain Hosp undertook at 8 a.m. an ascent of the Toblingerknoten [Torre di Toblin] from the north side with some of our own to check whether it was not possible to install an artillery observation post and a rifle patrol on top. […] Chaplain Hosp, an excellent climber, undertook another ascent of the Toblingerknoten at one o’clock in the morning, this time from the east side of our machine gun station. The ascent is much easier from there and even the construction of an observatory can be carried out on the east summit, taking the necessary precautions. Chaplain Hosp himself reports to the Subsection Command the success of his ascent.”3Kriegsarchiv Wien, Kriegstagebuch des Infanterieregiments 59, Eintrag vom 24.11.1915, p. 102 f.
The Chaplain Hosp was responsible for the field masses of the soldiers on the Plateau of the Three Peaks, which were celebrated for the senior officers of the army command on special holidays or visits to posts. He was also responsible for the solemn inauguration of the military cemetery in Zirbenboden. As his example shows, some representatives of the Church did not limit themselves to carrying out pastoral tasks and duties for soldiers, but voluntarily and actively intervened in the war effort, thus also accepting the death of others by their actions.
(GF, SK)
Kriegsarchiv Wien, Kriegstagebuch des Infanterieregiments 59, Eintrag vom 24.11.1915, S. 102 f und 26.2.1916, p. 173.
Zorzi, Ettore (1940). Don Pietro Zangrando. Roma: X Reggimento Alpini.
Diario dell’alpino Paolo Barzan, ADN_ MG/T3, Museo Diaristico Nazionale, Pieve Santo Stefano.
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