This was the moment Salvatore Mellone had been waiting for. On April 16, 2015, he was ordained a priest in his own home, since the weakness of cancer did not allow him to go to a church.
The day before his priestly ordination, he received a call from Pope Francis, who had given him his blessing. In the call, the Pope made an unusual request: that he offer a blessing for him at his first Mass. Salvatore's cancer only allowed him to serve as a priest for 74 days.
ADELE MELLONE
Sister of Salvatore Mellone
In three days, he did all that is done in five years, and so he was ordained on April 16, 2015. But on April 15, the day before, he was ordained a deacon, and that morning he received a phone call from His Holiness where the Pope asked him to offer his first blessing for him, because he was to be ordained the next day.
Salvatore's sister, Adele Mellone, assured that the priesthood was not only a desire but a necessity for her brother. In the early days of his illness, he told her that if he was not a priest in this world, he would be a priest in heaven.
ADELE MELLONE
Sister of Salvatore Mellone
But then, when the illness began to take its toll on him, when we would talk, he would always say that we didn't have to worry about him because God would make him a priest in paradise.
While undergoing chemotherapy, Salvatore saw that many cancer patients suffered from loneliness. He said he wanted to make a home to welcome them. From there, Casa Miriam was born, an initiative that his sister developed. It is a small facility in the Mellone family apartment run by volunteers that allows patients being treated at the local hospital to have companionship for everyday tasks.
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