On March 27, 2023, the Lord called to His House Father Michael Brizio, Consolata Missionary, who was ministering at St. Rose of Lima and St. Robert Bellarmine Parishes in Freehold, NJ.
Son of Giovenale Brizio and Maria (nee Berardo), Fr. Michael was born in Fossano, Piedmont, Italy, on September 28, 1947. He joined the Consolata Missionaries as a young boy and professed his first religious vows on October 02, 1967. He attended the Catholic University of America in Washington DC, where he obtained a Bachelor Degree in Theology. On May 12, 1973, he was ordained a priest.
His vocation was missionary life. Soon after his ordination, he was sent to Kenya and, after having learned Kimeru, one of the local languages, he taught at the Egoji Teacher Training College for four years.
When he turned 30, he was asked to take up the challenge to be a missionary in Ethiopia, where a degree in Education was required in order to run mission schools. Fr. Michael accepted and, by attending correspondence courses given by the Century University from Beverly Hill, California, in 1984 got a Master in Education; and in 1986, a Doctor Degree. These titles allowed him to be the Principal of the Meki and of the Nazareth mission schools and, later on, the Director of the Philosophy Seminary in Addis Ababa. To this he joined the task of being the Administrator of the Consolata Missionaries Region of Ethiopia for seven years.
After having worked in the two countries where the Consolata Missionaries opened their first missions at the beginning of the 20th Century, Fr. Michael, now in his early ‘50s, was asked to leave Africa, cross the Atlantic and be a missionary in Colombia, South America. He studied Spanish, and in 1996, he became the pastor of Solano, on a bank of the Caqueta’ River. In 1999 he took up the ministry of Administrator of the Vicariate of San Vicente del Caguan.
In 2002, he adheres to his Superiors’ request to move to North America and becomes the Mission Director in Somerset, New Jersey, and the Administrator of the Consolata Missionaries in United States and Canada. Although he loved working in fundraising activities in benefit of the missions and in the administration, Fr. Michael did not lose the focus of his vocation: the preaching and teaching of the Word of God, so that people may savor the great deeds the Lord does in their life. From 2007, he started ministering at St. Rose of Lima in Freehold, and, after three years at St. Andrew’s in Toronto, Canada, he resumed his presence at St. Rose and began collaborating at St. Robert Bellarmine, in Freehold, and at St. Anthony of Padua in Hightstown.
He left peacefully this earth to go to the Father’s House on March 27, 2023 at the De La Salle Hall, in Lincroft. To the De La Salle Brothers and all the personnel of the skilled nursing home goes the deepest gratitude of the Consolata Missionaries for all they have done to keep Fr. Michael comfortable and well cared for in the last weeks of his journey.
Fr. Michael is greatly missed by his brother Giuseppe, his sister Giuseppina and their families, as well as by the Consolata missionaries, the priests and parishioners at St. Rose of Lima, St Roberto Bellarmino and St. Anthony of Padua, the many people who have come in contact with him in his nearly fifty years of priesthood either in person or online – Fr. Michael had a network of “disciples” on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Radio Maria.
A kind person, lover of Scriptures and devoted to Our Lady, with a great sense of humor and vast knowledge in all fields, he will be remembered as a creative and deep preacher, a precious counselor and a unique companion on the journey of faith. In a month time he would have celebrated his golden jubilee as a priest: he will do it sitting at the table of the Lord, where he will thank him for having received the gift of being a missionary priest and will lovingly intercede for the many people he has known throughout the world.