by Ivana Zuliani
In 2019 he won the competition that anoints models and actors: a former swimmer, he was a dancer and acted. Then the meeting with some young people who attended the church and the discovery of his vocation: «I had unexpressed questions about myself, now I’m finding the answers»
His greatest fear was that of not being accepted for his choice. But Edoardo Santini, 21 years old from Castelfiorentino, winner in 2019 of the national competition «The most beautiful in Italy», followed her: he began his journey to become a priest.
And he is currently on retreat in Fiesole.
«Will I become one? I don’t know, I’m here to find out. I took that step that terrified me, that prevented me from being fully myself, ready in case to say: “No, I was wrong”. What I am certain of, however, is that I will not regret this journey, because now I can shout: I’m Edoardo, 21 years old and I’m happy.”
A past as a swimmer, emerging actor, dancer (in 2022 in Massa Carrara he achieved the title of Italian category champions in the Boogie Woogie discipline), Edoardo talks about his journey in a sincere, cheerful and smiling video on social media.
«Twenty-one years old, at 21 my father made the decision to marry my mother because she had become pregnant. My mother became a mother at the age of 21 while I find myself on the path to becoming, God willing, a priest. In recent years I have had the opportunity to meet young people who, by showing me what it means to be a church, have given me the strength to investigate this question that I have carried with me since I was little, but which various fears prevented me from exploring in depth.”
«Last year – he continues – to take a first step I went to live with two priests and that was the most beautiful experience of my life, an experience that allowed me to meet brothers and in everyday life that response I was waiting for came down from above. At the end of the year it was natural for me to ask the bishop to enter the preparatory year preceding the seminary. Now I study theology, I serve in two parishes in the Florentine diocese.”
Edoardo has put aside for now “modelling, acting and dancing, because yes inevitably entails no”. But he doesn’t deny anything: «In recent years I have met wonderful people who have given me so much and allowed me to experience art. I won’t abandon everything, because my passions are part of me but I will live them and propose them again in different contexts.”
It wasn’t a simple decision to make, especially for fear of the judgment of others. «But I have to say that I had built more walls for myself than there actually were. There are those who talk behind my back, those who have no problem telling me that I’m a disappointment even in my family, but there are also those who support me. Believers and non-believers.”
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December 2, 2023 (modified December 2, 2023 | 4:24 pm)
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2023-12-02 15:24:59
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