arishioners and brothers at the Xaverian Missions at Our Lady of Fatima Shrine are mourning the loss of their former director, Rev. Pius Devoti, who died last week of pancreatic cancer.
A memorial Mass will be held Sunday at 11 a.m. at the shrine.
"He was very extroverted, very exuberant, and very gifted," said Rev. Francis Signorelli, a member of the Xaverian Missions at Fatima. Devoti, friends and colleagues agreed, was a man who commanded attention and made a mark on everyone he met because of a love and zest for life.
"He could reach out to everyone," Rev. Bob Maloney said. Maloney said a perfect example that Devoti could break down any wall, whether cultural or spiritual, came when Devoti was the pastor of a large church in Osaka, Japan. "That is typically a very closed and difficult culture to break into," Maloney said. "And he was ultimately accepted because he was so exuberant."
Devoti, 63, was born in Udine, in the northern Italian region of Friuli.
He was ordained into the priesthood in 1963 in Parma, Italy. He was assigned to Japan where for more than 25 years he served as a missionary pastor in several cities including Miyazaki, Izumi and Sano. "He was a person that found himself in Japan," said Maloney. "He appreciated the people, the culture and the language."
He touched many people. He made himself available to anybody that needed his help on a spiritual or religious basis.
During his 25 years, Maloney said, he learned to speak Japanese fluently. Devoti's service in Japan was interrupted on two separate occasions. He served a five-year term as a teacher in the Xaverian Theology Seminary in Parma, and touched the lives of countless people in MetroWest when he served as director of the Fatima Shrine for seven years starting in 1988.
"He touched many people," said Signorelli. "He made himself available to anybody that needed his help on a spiritual or religious basis." Devoti became famous among parishioners and visitors to the shrine for working music and original compositions into Mass, informal gatherings and holiday parties.
He was proficient in the organ and accordion and had a "powerful tenor voice," Signorelli said.
"He was performing in our hall once and someone came up to him and said, 'You sound just like Pavarotti,' " Signorelli said. "He said to them, 'You mean Pavarotti sounds just like me.' "
"He was made for the center stage," Maloney said.
Devoti returned to Japan in 1995, not to return to Holliston until 2000. It was when Devoti returned, Signorelli and Maloney said, that they noticed a difference. "I imagine that must have been when his sickness was just beginning," Maloney said. "He was very quiet." His sickness and death took may by surprise. "He was very healthy and very strong," said Signorelli. "But when he came back a year ago, something was different."
Devoti was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer four months ago and lost his fight last Sunday at the Xaverian Missionaries Motherhouse in Parma. According to Signorelli, a friend who called Devoti days before he died relayed a message.
"No more loud and boisterous but now peacefully and soft-spoken he said, 'God has been good to me, just pray that God's will be done. Pray to Mary that she may be with me to the end,"' said Devoti's obituary.
(From MetroWest Daily News)