HONG KONG (SE): The Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions [PIME] announced that Brother Giovanni Marasi [馬흼볏錦却] returned to the house of the Lord on February 20. He was 94-years-old.
Brother Marasi served in Hong Kong from 1970 to 2021. He left Hong Kong and retired to Lecco, north Italy, where PIME has a home for aged and sick missionaries [Sunday Examiner, 29 August 2021] .
Born in Gallarate, northern Italy, in 1931, he completed three-years at vocational training school then, at the age of 14, began working in a watch repair workshop. At the same time, he attended a five-year evening school in Milan qualify for this profession. He settled in Gallarate, setting up a private business for neighbourhood retail shops.
At the age of 29 he joined the PIME. In Busto Arsizio, near Varese, he began his internship with the aim of becoming a lay missionary. After a year, he continued his formation at another PIME house taking a course on spirituality, history and the charism of the institute. After the year of formation, he served at two PIME houses.
He was assigned to Hong Kong in 1970, but first went to England to study English for a year.
Arriving in Hong Kong in 1971, he studied Cantonese and was assigned to the Caritas Social Centre in Tsuen Wan, where he remained until 1979. He was in charge of the vocational training school, where young people trained in various fields: electricity, mechanics, carpentry, repair of air conditioning appliances, and others.
In 1979 he moved to Caritas House, Caine Road. He oversaw of the maintenance and repair work in the various Caritas centres. He was also in charge of the mechanical workshop, where young people trained in car repair.
A jack-of-all-trades, Brother Marasi could to repair a car as well as cultivate a garden, restore an old coffee machine to working order, in addition to picking up needle and thread. Above all, in the various places where he lived and worked, he continued his old profession of repairing watches.
May he rest in peace.
