Fra Biagio Conte is the son of a prosperous Palermo businessman who gave up everything to live with the homeless under the portico of the Palermo train station for two years. Through hunger strikes and his connections he got the city to donate three abandoned buildings where he now houses a thousand people and feeds all of them three hot meals a day with the help of private and corporate donations and European Union funds. There are two homes for men and one for women. The European Union bought them a grinding stone and they use it to make all the bread they eat. It was costing the mission 400 euros a day just for bread. Now they make their own bread and teach brothers the trade of panificio, bread maker. The guest brothers and sisters can stay for as long as they like. In the winter Conte's Mission of Hope and Charity also runs night missions to bring packaged food, hot tea and milk, and blankets to a round of homeless people who wish to remain in the street for present. These night missions are staffed by hundreds of volunteers.
Sicily
and Vermont
Brother Biagio Conte, Palermo missionary
January 7, 2013
Fra Biagio Conte is the son of a prosperous Palermo businessman who gave up everything to live with the homeless under the portico of the Palermo train station for two years. Through hunger strikes and his connections he got the city to donate three abandoned buildings where he now houses a thousand people and feeds all of them three hot meals a day with the help of private and corporate donations and European Union funds. There are two homes for men and one for women. The European Union bought them a grinding stone and they use it to make all the bread they eat. It was costing the mission 400 euros a day just for bread. Now they make their own bread and teach brothers the trade of panificio, bread maker. The guest brothers and sisters can stay for as long as they like. In the winter Conte's Mission of Hope and Charity also runs night missions to bring packaged food, hot tea and milk, and blankets to a round of homeless people who wish to remain in the street for present. These night missions are staffed by hundreds of volunteers.
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