Teresio Olivelli was born in 1916 in
Como to Domenico Olivelli and Clelia Invernizzi. His maternal uncle was the
priest Rocco Invernizzi – parish priest of
Tremezzo – who served as Olivelli's spiritual and moral point of reference. He moved with his parents in 1926 to
Pavia and was good at Latin when he studied there. He studied at
Mortara and at
Vigevano before transferring his studies to Pavia in 1934 where he graduated in law with honors in 1938 from the
Ghislieri College. Each week he went to confession and to receive the
Eucharist in the parish of San Lorenzo. It was around this time that he was a member of
Catholic Action as well as the
F.U.C.I. and a Fascist student group. In 1939 he became the assistant of administrative law at the
University of Turin and won a competition in
Trieste for oratorical skills, with a thesis on human dignities for all irrespective of race. He also penned articles on the social and legal issues of the times in the college paper "Book and Musket" and in the journal "Fascist Civilization". While in Turin he aided the poor and orphaned. He also learned to speak fluent German. In 1936 he volunteered to fight in the
Spanish Civil War and then moved for educational reasons to
Berlin from 1939 to 1941. In 1941 he volunteered to go to
Russia to fight in
World War II where he contracted frostbite due to the severe cold weather. Olivelli did not want to swear allegiance to the new
Italian Social Republic in 1943 and was thus deported to
Innsbruck in
Austria on 9 September 1943 until he managed to flee and settle in
Milan in the evening of 20–21 October. He started to become critical of the Italian regime and believed he could improve it through a more Christian message though later broke from it after seeing the situation with deporting Jewish people as per racial laws and the French invasion. Olivelli became part of the
Italian resistance movement in Milan as part of the triangular resistance including
Brescia and
Cremona branches. He remained in touch with resistance members such as Peppino Pelosi and Carlo Manziana while he was in Brescia. Olivelli worked hard to create the newspaper "Il ribelle" and the first issue published on 5 March 1944 was dedicated to Astolfo Lunardi and Ermanno Margheriti who were both executed not long before. His paper was the underground newspaper for the Green Flames Brigades partisan group. Carlo Bianchi and Claudio Sartori helped him establish the paper in February 1944. Olivelli's codename at this time was "Agostino Gracchi". The partisan was apprehended in Milan on 27 April 1944 and was at once taken to the prison of San Vittore where he was tortured and beaten before being moved to Fossoli on 8 June. On 11 July his name was added to a list of 70 inmates to be shot but he fled and hid in a field until he was recaptured. He was then transferred to
Bolzano (August 1944) before being sent to
Flossenbürg (September 1944) and then to
Hersbruck. He shared food rations with inmates and treated their injuries and even spent time with
Blessed Odoardo Focherini to comfort him before the latter died. Olivelli died from injuries he sustained in 1945 not long after defending a Ukrainian inmate from being attacked. He was kicked in the stomach and intestines and was struck 25 times. His remains were cremated at the camp's crematorium. ==Beatification process==