Rosario Livatino

Rosario Angelo Livatino (Italian: Rosario Angelo Livatino; 3 October 1952, Canicattì, Sicily — 21 September 1990, Agrigento, Sicily) was an Italian judge, anti-mafia fighter, martyr, and Blessed of the Catholic Church.

Biography

After graduating from a classical lyceum, he studied at the Faculty of Law of the University of Palermo from 1971 to 1975.

In 1977–1978 he worked as deputy director of the government secretariat in Agrigento.

In 1979 he became deputy prosecutor at the Agrigento court and held this position until 1989.

As deputy public prosecutor in the 1980s he investigated not only mafia crimes but also bribery and corruption. He later served as a judge in Sicily. Throughout his career Livatino fought corruption and succeeded in a number of criminal cases, securing the seizure of large sums of money and property as well as the arrests of high-ranking organized-crime figures.

Rosario Livatino (1952–1990) was born in Canicattì, was an only son, and lived with his parents.

From 1979 he worked as a prosecutor and later as a judge in Agrigento; he handled anti-mafia cases, confiscated assets, and obtained 40 convictions in a major trial. A deeply devout Catholic, he refused police protection.

In 2021 he was beatified as a martyr; he is known as “the boy judge.”

On 21 September 1990 he was killed while driving unescorted to court by four mafia hitmen. He was in his old Ford Fiesta when the killers’ car rammed it. Already wounded by a shot to the shoulder, Livatino desperately tried to flee across the adjacent fields, but after a few dozen metres the assassins caught up with him and shot him dead.

He was killed on 21 September 1990 on State Road SS 640 between Canicattì and Agrigento (Sicily), near the Gasena viaduct, while driving unescorted to work at the courthouse in his Ford Fiesta.

The killers were four hitmen of the Stidda organization (which rivalled Cosa Nostra in the province of Agrigento):
Paolo Amico,
Domenico Pace,
Gaetano Puzzangaro,
Giovanni Avarello.
The instigators were local Stidda bosses — Antonio Gallea, Salvatore Calafato and others.

The murder was fully solved. The key witness was Pietro Nava; later came the statements of pentiti (turncoats). In several trials (“Livatino 1, 2 and 3”) both the perpetrators and the instigators were sentenced to life imprisonment; the sentences were confirmed up to the Court of Cassation.

Memory

On 21 December 2020 Pope Francis signed the decree recognizing his martyrdom, thereby opening the way to his beatification, which took place on 9 May 2021 in Agrigento Cathedral.
An International Prize for Justice named after Rosario Livatino has been established.
In one of Rome’s municipalities, Ostia, a new student residence named after Rosario Livatino has been opened.

 

 

 

 

Rosario Angelo Livatino ( 3 October 1952 – 21 September 1990) was an Italian magistrate who was murdered by the Stidda, a Sicilian Mafia-type criminal organization, and Beatified by the Catholic Church.

Biography

Livatino was born in Canicattì, Sicily. After successfully completing high school, he entered the Law Faculty of the University of Palermo in 1971, and graduated in 1975. Between 1977 and 1978, he served as vice-director of the Register Office in Agrigento. In 1978, after being among the top percentage in the Judiciary audit, he was made magistrate at the court at Caltanissetta.

In 1979, he became sostituto procuratore (deputy prosecutor) at the Agrigento court, a position he kept until 1989, when he was appointed giudice a latere (assistant judge). During his career, Livatino worked against corruption, and won a number of cases, obtaining seizure of large sums of money and property, and the arrests of senior organised crime figures.

On 21 September 1990, Livatino was murdered along route SS 640 as he drove to court without bodyguards. The four assassins had been paid by the Stidda of Agrigento. His story inspired a novel, Il giudice ragazzino ("The Boy Judge"), written by Nando Dalla Chiesa in 1992. This was made into a film of the same name in 1994 by director Alessandro Di Robilant.

Beatification process

In 1993, the Bishop of Agrigento asked Livatino's former teacher, Ida Abate, to collect any available testimony for Livatino's beatification. On 19 July 2011, the Archbishop of Agrigento, Francesco Montenegro, signed the decree to begin the diocesan process of beatification, which was officially opened on 21 September 2011 in the Church of San Domenico in Canicattì.

During the diocesan phase, 45 individuals testified to the life and sanctity of Livatino, including Gaetano Puzzangaro, one of the judge's four killers. He was interviewed in prison by Canicattì journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona for the weekly magazine Panorama in December 2017, and for TGcom24 in September 2019.

The diocesan process for Livatino’s beatification was declared closed on 6 September 2018, marked with a solemn Mass on 3 October by Cardinal Francesco Montenegro in the Church of Sant'Alfonso in Agrigento.[5] Afterwards, all 4,000 pages of documents and testimonies were sent to Rome for examination by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Pope John Paul II had commented Livatino was a "Martyr of Justice and in an indirect way, of the Christian Faith".

In December 2020, Pope Francis approved the decree of martyrdom proposed by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Then-Servant of God Rosario Angelo Livatino was officially proclaimed Blessed on Sunday, 9 May 2021, in Agrigento Cathedral by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. On the same date in 1993, Pope John Paul II declared in the Valley of the Temples to the Mafia: "Be converted! One day the judgment of God will come!" Livatino is the first magistrate to be declared “Blessed” by the Catholic Church.

At the request of the Archdiocese of Agrigento and his birthplace of Canicattì, Livatino’s body was translated on 15 March 2025 from his family mausoleum in the municipal cemetery to the Church of Santa Chiara. His remains are encased within his effigy, dressed in judicial robes and contained in a glass casket, while another relic is the blood-soaked shirt he wore when he was killed, kept in a separate reliquary.

Rosario Livatino Study Center

In 2015, the Centro Studio Rosario Livatino (Rosario Livatino Study Center) was established, a think tank comprising jurists whose research focuses are the right to life, the family, religious freedom, and the limits of jurisdiction within a framework of institutional balance. The Center maintains an online website, organizes periodic workshops, and an annual conference. It also publishes the semi-annual law review l-Jus, analysing legal topics from Catholic and Thomistic perspectives.

Judges and magistrates killed by mafia organizations in Italy (primarily Cosa Nostra and the ’Ndrangheta)

The list is not exhaustive, but includes the most well-known cases.

Cosa Nostra (Sicily):

• Pietro Scaglione — 5 May 1971, Palermo. The first major “excellent” murder of a prosecutor.
• Cesare Terranova — 25 September 1979, Palermo.
• Gaetano Costa — 6 August 1980, Palermo.
• Giangiacomo Ciaccio Montalto — 26 January 1983, Trapani.
• Rocco Chinnici — 29 July 1983, Palermo (car bomb).
• Alberto Giacomelli — 14 September 1988, Trapani (already retired).
• Antonino Saetta — 25 September 1988, together with his son Stefano.
• Rosario Livatino — 21 September 1990, Agrigento.
• Giovanni Falcone — 23 May 1992, Capaci (together with his wife, judge Francesca Morvillo).
• Paolo Borsellino — 19 July 1992, Palermo.

’Ndrangheta (Calabria and other regions):

• Francesco Ferlaino — July 1975, Lamezia Terme.
• Bruno Caccia — 26 June 1983, Turin.
• Antonino Scopelliti — 9 August 1991, Villa San Giovanni (the murder was commissioned by Cosa Nostra with the consent of the ’Ndrangheta).

Most of these judges were involved in investigations against the mafia, asset confiscations, or major trials (including the Maxi Trial).

After 1992, direct murders of sitting judges by the mafia became significantly rarer.