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Don Italo Tonidandel was born in 1925 at Fai della Paganella, in the province of Trient.
He began service as the miners’ priest in the Tyrol in 1955 and later assisted not only the Schneeberg miners but also those who built the forced water conduits in Ultental and Martelltal, and later also those building tunnels for the motorway and railway. In the early years, he exercised his ministry with Don Giorgio Cristofolini.
Every two weeks, Don Italo started out from Ridnaun to St. Martin am Schneeberg, where he celebrated the 10 o’clock Sunday mass with the miners. At 5 o’clock on the same day, he then celebrated mass at Maiern. During his outward journey, he could usually use the cableway, travelling in one of the ore-buckets, but the return journey, of 4-5 hours, was on foot, in the company of a miner or, in the winter, on skis. He was not the best of skiers, and once broke a leg coming down the Lazzacher Tal.
Don Italo not only looked after the miners’ souls, he was also a great social worker. Thanks to his lengthy experience as vice-chairman of the Catholic Workers’ Association at Bozen, he was thoroughly familiar with social work and helped the miners with all their problems. He helped many to obtain adequate invalidity pensions or special pre-pension funds.
In 1956, he brought his cinema with him to St. Martin, in the sense that he brought a projector and films, and showed them to the miners. He very soon installed a fixed projector in a large hut.
One of his particular commitments was preparing for the feast of St. Barbara and for Christmas. Weeks before these events, he zealously collected funds at Bozen, so as to be able to give each miner a fine gift as well as spiritual uplift. Naturally, Don Italo, who now lives in Bozen, still comes every year to take part in the feast of St. Barbara and the miners’ mass in the museum sector at Ridnaun, to celebrate together with his old miners.
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history
history of mining on Schneeberg
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