Founder Father/Doctor Giuseppe: The Saint Doctor

“I have never in my whole life met a person as good and caring towards others. Rich or poor, healthy or sick didn’t exist for him. In every human being that he met he saw the face of Christ and was seized by it.

Sister Romilde, Sisters of Kalongo

Giuseppe Ambrosoli was born in Ronago, Italy, on July 25, 1923, to a well-known family from Como. After finishing gymnasium school, he met Father don Silvio Riva, assistant of the Catholic Action of Como. This encounter set the course for the rest of his life and it was very important in the development of his religious sensitivity and faith.

In 1942 after finishing secondary school Giuseppe Ambrosoli enrolled at the University of Milan studying medicine. However, his studies were interrupted with the onset of WW II. During the war Ambrosoli worked tirelessly to save partisans who failed to report for military service, ex-soldiers, and persecuted Jews allowing them accommodations in his home. During the night challenging the German guards he aided them in escaping to Switzerland. When the war ended, he returned to school and obtained his degree in medicine and surgery. Dr. Ambrosoli then went to London to study tropical diseases.

“God is love, there is a neighbor who suffers and I am his servant.”

Giuseppe Ambrosoli

With these profound words, he announced to his mother and father his desire to pursue a missionary vocation. On December 17, 1955, Giuseppe Ambrosoli was ordained into priesthood.

“Nobody ever left him with empty hands or a cold heart.”

 Common sentiment by those who met him.

The Comboni missionaries headquartered in Italy answered a plea to send a father and doctor to Northern Uganda. Father/Doctor Giuseppe Ambrosoli arrived in Kalongo, Uganda, in February, 1956. He was to be of service to a small but badly functioning dispensary. The Comboni missionaries held firm to the ideal of “Save Africa with the Africans.” True to this ideal, Father/Doctor Ambrosoli met with the locals asking them what they would like to better the Kalongo community. Their answer was a hospital. He then posed the question, “What will you do to achieve that?” Their answer was, “We will provide the land and the labor.” Father/Doctor Ambrosoli secured the necessary financial resources and the Kalongo community followed through on their promise of land and labor. Together they transformed the dispensary into a modern medical facility with 345 beds. The Kalongo Hospital which was later renamed Doctor Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital was able to provide qualified medical assistance to the population and especially to the most vulnerable such as women and children.

Father/Doctor Ambrosoli was a surgeon, midwife, radiologist, and pediatrician. He established a specific ward for children who were malnourished working with both the children and their mothers.  Even before Raul Follereau proclaimed that lepers are “men like others,” Father/Doctor Ambrosoli worked intensely with lepers. He admitted them to the hospital because he strongly felt that leper hospitals were places of desperation and death. He worked both as a doctor and manual laborer. Doctors from throughout the world came as volunteers to work side by side with Father/Doctor Ambrosoli.

Knowing that Kalongo Hospital needed qualified medical support, Father/Doctor Ambrosoli founded St. Mary’s Midwifery Training School in 1959. Once again, he collaborated with the Kalongo community to build the school in order to train students both in nursing and midwifery. Father/Doctor Ambrosoli strongly believed that Kalongo Hospital and St. Mary’s were essential for the future development of Uganda as well as the improvement in living conditions for the nation. He also strongly believed that Africa could be saved by the great capacity of the African women.

It was well known in the community that Father/Doctor Ambrosoli was always where he needed to be. A medical emergency would occur and he would arrive to help even before a plea went out for his assistance. He was beloved and admired and as a result the locals gave him the name of “The Saint Doctor.”

War Comes to Northern Uganda

In 1987 a civil war raged throughout the northern districts in Uganda. The Lord’s Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony from Lira was fighting the Yoweri Museveni government for the independence of Northern Uganda. Government forces arrived in Kalongo leading to the forced evacuation of the hospital and the school. Father/Doctor Ambrosoli was given 24 hours to clear both facilities and to also evacuate the sick.

On February 13 a convoy of 34 vehicles, the medical staff, 23 Italian citizens, 1500 soldiers and civilians, 150 patients, nurses and students left Kalongo. As the convoy left a plume of smoke rose over Kalongo Hospital. The government forces were destroying all the drugs so that they would not fall into the hands of the rebels. Father/Doctor Ambrosoli wrongly assumed that the army was burning the actual hospital. He felt that 30 years of work was going up in flames. This sight broke his heart.

Father/Doctor Ambrosoli was able to find another location for St. Mary’s Midwifery Training School that would be far away from the ravages of war. Training medical staff for the hospital would continue.

The Last Hours of Life

Arriving in Lira, Father/Doctor Ambrosoli’s health deteriorated. He had been diagnosed with kidney disease and the extreme stress of the evacuation caused the disease to take a lethal toll on his body. On Sunday, March 22, Father/Doctor Ambrosoli happily held mass in the chapel of the Comboni College. This was his last holy mass on earth.

In the afternoon he felt feverish and went to bed. The sisters were immediately notified. At the time it was believed to be simple malaria, common throughout Uganda. Father/Doctor Ambrosoli admitted that he thought the symptoms were a result of complications connected to his illness. His fever was high and a treatment directed by him was begun. As the seriousness of his illness became more and more apparent, pessimism settled in. This was unusual in a man who for the most part held an optimism when working with people along with a belief in the goodness of Africa.

Via radio the sisters consulted medical authorities given that his condition was not improving. The days worsened as the sisters watched over him administrating drugs through a drip. Father/Doctor Ambrosoli asked Father Marchetti to hear his confession.

At 5:00 am he felt somewhat better. He asked Sister Romilde what plans they had for him. He was told that they were planning to move him out of Lira. He replied, “No, you mustn’t do it. It will be too late. I only have a few hours left to live. You know I have always wanted to remain with my people. Why are you sending me away now?” He thanked her and added, “Be it God’s will.”

He helped with everything for his departure. He was ready for anything. He guided his treatment but made it understood that his end was near. On Friday, March 27, surrounded by the Comboni Sisters, Fathers and Brothers, they participated in the celebration of the last sacraments which he received with much lucidity and serenity. They all prayed as they waited for the helicopter. However, Father/Doctor Ambrosoli sensed his decline. An insensitivity in his legs told that the supreme moment had arrived. He repeated with vigor as best as he could the ejaculatory prayers. He fixed his gaze high up on the wall as if he saw someone. The time between each breath lengthened. It was precisely at 1:50 pm on March 27, 1987, his breathing ceased and his heartbeat slowed. 

“As a priest Father Ambrosoli was always full of kindness, humanity, understanding and love for others. He never gave a reason for a contrary voice. As a doctor her performed miracles. As a result, his patients became a multitude.”

Sister Romilde, the Sisters of Kalongo

Father/Doctor Ambrosoli was a builder of the church. The material part of his work may have been swept away with the war but the spiritual part remains everlasting in the hearts of the sick, friends and brothers, and anyone who knew him and enjoyed his friendship. To this day his spirit is felt not only at the Doctor Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital and St. Mary’s but throughout the Kalongo community.

“It is common belief that the work of Father Ambrosoli will flourish again and bear fruit according to the logic of the evangelic seed that must die and to carry a fruit. Yes, because Father Ambrosoli was a seed and a good sower.”

Sister Romilde, the Sisters of Kalongo

As it happened both the hospital and the school building survived the 20-year civil. The hospital and the school continue to be the pride of the community. During the war the locals guarded these facilities ferociously from the rebels. Every night hundreds of locals would also arrive at the hospital and school to seek safety from the marauding bands of rebels who would burn villages, kidnap children, and kill their parents. In the middle of the war St. Mary’s staff and students returned. After the war Doctor Ambrosoli Hospital reopened.

“Father Ambrosoli was not only a master of surgery, but also a master of life in so far as all the activity of Kalongo was marked with love, collaboration, and serenity thanks to him.

Sister Romilde, the Sisters of Kalongo

Today numerous young women apply to St. Mary’s Midwifery Training School with the hopes of obtaining admission to one of the best midwifery schools in Uganda. Doctor Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital’s outstanding reputation draws people from numerous communities. Medical personal and students from around the world arrive frequently to volunteer their time and expertise at both the hospital and school. Father/Doctor Ambrosoli’s spirit lives on. One can see it and even feel it in the teachers, doctors, nurses, patients, and anyone who is fortunate to visit Kalongo.  

Foundations

The Doctor Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital Foundation was established in 1998 by the Comboni Missionaries and the family of Father/Doctor Giuseppe Ambrosoli. The foundation supports Doctor Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital and St. Mary’s Midwifery Training School with the aim of giving continuity and future to the medical and missionary work of Father/Doctor Giuseppe Ambrosoli. It is the inspiration of Father/Doctor Ambrosoli and his ideal of “Save Africa with the Africans,” that the foundation was established.

Established in 2014 by Bill and Holly Copeland, the Family Copeland Foundation provides financial support to students in need who are studying to be midwives at St. Mary’s. 100% of all donations go directly to St. Mary’s in the form of scholarships.

“Because of our Peace Corps service, Bill and I left Africa not with a sense of despair and hopelessness but with strong feelings of optimism and faith in the Africans to build a brighter future, a future of their own making. We know this because we were privileged to see that happening at St. Mary’s.

Holly Copeland, Peace Corps Volunteer, 2011-2013 and co-founder

Beatification of Father Doctor Ambrosoli

Beatification is the third step of four in the process of a deceased person achieving sainthood. It is a declaration by the Catholic Church that the person is blessed and is the celebration of that person entering Heaven. Beatification requires two important qualities of a person: heroism and miraculous power.

Beatification of Father/Doctor Ambrosoli occurred on November 20, 2022.