Beniamino Filon was born in Balduina di San Urbano on 2 August 1900 as the eighth of ten children to the modest
farmers Giacomo Filon (d. 11 March 1924) and Giuseppina Marin (d. 31 July 1932) who were
married in
Padua on 24 March 1887. He received
baptism on 5 August 1900 from Cristiano Sartori with the names Beniamino Angelo; his godparents were Angelo Bertoet and Maddalena Sartori. On 18 April 1910 he received his
Confirmation from the
Bishop of Padua Luigi Pellizzo and then his
First Communion on 2 April 1911 in his hometown from Eugenio Bau. Filon attended school from 1906 until 1909 and then attended school in
Lendinara from 1910 until 1914. It was in Lendinara that he had his first encounters with
friars from the
Order of Friars Minor Capuchin; he became impressed with their order and so began visiting them and decided that he wished to enter their order which he did on 13 October 1917 with the beginning of his ecclesial studies in
Rovigo. On 20 March 1918 he was called to
Milan for mandated service with the armed forces due to
World War I. He remained in the armed forces for his service until 1921. He began his
novitiate in
Bassano del Grappa on 28 September 1922 at which point he was vested in the
Franciscan habit and assumed his religious name. He made his initial profession into the order on 29 September 1923. Filon's studies in
Thiene in
Vicenza were interrupted on 3 July 1924 when he was transferred for his education at Santissimo Redentore in
Venice. During his theological studies around 1925 he began feeling the effects of the disease
encephalitis lethargica that led to doubts for his proceeding towards
ordination. His superiors feared his premature death and so decided to dispense him from the final part of his theological formation so that he could be ordained but he did make his solemn profession on 8 December 1926. He received his ordination to the priesthood from the
Cardinal Patriarch of Venice Pietro La Fontaine in the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino on 21 July 1929. He celebrated his first
Mass in his hometown on 4 August 1929. Filon's suffering increased at a gradual rate but he offered his suffering for the salvation of souls and the sanctification of priests. He spent a brief respite in
Koper in
Slovenia and then on 28 November 1931 arrived in
Udine where he would live but first underwent a thorough examination. The doctors diagnosed him with
postencephalitic parkinsonism on 29 September 1932. His cell was positioned on the first floor to act as a confessional where he would hear penitents due to his disease. On 15 September 1941 he made a pilgrimage to
Loreto and then made another one there in 1946. Filon's renown in the confessional became great to the point that people called him "santo confessore". There were some penitents that often said that Filon could mention their faults to them before having the chance to speak with people comparing it to
Padre Pio's reading of hearts. Pietro Baldassi - a priest who served the Unione Nazionale Italiana Transporto Ammalati a Lourdes Santuari Internazionali - knew just how ill Filon was and so invited him to make a pilgrimage to
Lourdes. He left on 19 July 1948 (he celebrated his final Mass that morning) via train reaching Lourdes but could not proceed from there to the grotto as he had hoped. The next evening his condition worsened. He experienced great pain at 11:00pm on 21 July with his breathing becoming labored. He lost consciousness and woke sometime later and so received the
Anointing of the Sick when the pain continued but died just moments later while singing the
Magnificat. His
funeral was held on 23 July and he was buried in a
wooden coffin. His remains were interred in Lourdes but on 15 October 1949 his remains were exhumed to be placed in another grave in a coffin of oak lined with zinc and exhumed once more on 9 June 1997. ==Beatification process==