HomeNewsItalian missionary to Mindanao, Father Sandro Brambilla, dies at 78

Italian missionary to Mindanao, Father Sandro Brambilla, dies at 78

Father Brambilla served in the province of Zamboanga del Norte, particularly in the predominantly Muslim town of Sirawai

Italian missionary priest Alessandro “Sandro” Brambilla of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) died on Friday, April 16, in Manila. He was 78.

Father Brambilla served in the province of Zamboanga del Norte in the southern Philippines, particularly in the predominantly Muslim town of Sirawai from 1986 to 2014.

“The Diocese of Dipolog mourns with Santo Nino de Sirawai Parish and the PIME for the death of Father Brambilla,” read an announcement on Facebook.




“He will never be forgotten for his consoling presence and selfless generosity in supporting those who wanted to study,” it added.

Father Brambilla died in the city of Paranaque in the Philippine capital after days of suffering malaise attributed to pneumonia.

The priest was born in Gorgonzola in Milan, Italy, on March 29, 1943. He entered the institute’s seminary in Monza on Oct. 1, 1962 and graduated from his classical studies and was ordained on June 28, 1973, in Milan.

He was sent to the Philippines in the southern island of Mindanao in 1974 after studying English in London.

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In 1977 he was transferred to Tondo, Manila, to serve the large parish of San Pablo Apostol. Once the parish was handed over to the Archdiocese of Manila, Father Brambilla accepted the proposal to serve as administrator at the Missionary Center in Milan.

He returned to the Philippines to work in Sirawai in the middle of a guerrilla war.

In one of his letters in 1993, in response to the invitation to take up a position at the service of the institute, he wrote: “I no longer expected such an invitation because (of) the recent killing of Father Salvatore Carzedda (in Zamboanga) a few months ago, we lack of personnel.”

“Sirawai is a place of people who come and go, the stable community is made up only of a small group of faithful, so the presence of the priest is really important; in addition, now there are also some young people who think they are consecrating themselves to God and need to be followed,” he added.

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