Beatified Nicola from Gesturi

Giovanni Angelo Salvatore Medda was born in Gesturi on 5th August 1882 into a family of humble farmers of Oristano, with an intense humanitarian and Catholic inclination.

When he was thirteen years old, orphan of mother as well, he began his working life as a servant at a rich landowner of the village.

After the death of this person, he carried on the same activity as a servant at his sister’s brother-in-law, not for necessity conditions, but because of a personal choice.

The event that persuaded his religious life was connected to his health condition: indeed, he was damaged by a joint rheumatism, that forced him to stay in bed for almost two months, during which he took the vow of fasting on Saturdays of each week and that continued for his whole life.

His vocation led him, in 1911, to present personally a request of admission to the Convent of Capuchins of Cagliari, where he became a friar in 1913. The main task that was assigned to him was that of the collecting of alms.

The literal meaning of the verb is very suitable to the true activity of charity, that etymologically implies.

The activity of charity was appropriate for the generous spirit of this Beatified, who did his Christian tasks in a complete silence.

This behavior designated him, during the time, as the “Silence Friar”, because, trough it, he comforted, scolded and, above other humanitarian job, he prayed, for the research of the transcendent contact, that better allowed him to transfer, to other people, feelings of love and compassion.


His slow walk, looking downward, and with his rosary intersected between his fingers, symbolized humility and the religious diligence. The silent friar, an operative moral assistant of civil people during and after the Second World War, died in June 1958.

He was proclaimed revered and then Beatified by Giovanni Paolo II in 1999. Now, the museum consecrated to him is situated into the rooms underlying the Convent of Capuchins of Cagliari.