DON AGOSTINO VALENTE was born in Villa San Sebastiano, in the province of L'Aquila, on June 7, 1924, to parents of profound humanity and faith. His father, Mr. Ambrogio, was an open-minded man with a serene gaze, whose warmth and ease immediately made one feel at ease. His mother, Teodora Tellone, was the center of religious goodness in the family, infusing everything in their daily lives with affection and prayer that served the children's upbringing. Young Agostino, baptized on June 24, 1924, and confirmed on November 23, 1931, made his first life choices in the warmth of his family and at the foot of the altar, where he served Mass as an altar boy. With the help of the parish priest, Mr. Ambrogio set out to find a way to give substance to his boy's dreams. This was his first encounter with the Guanellians, who had a small apostolic school in Ferentino, in the province of Frosinone. The admission process followed, and was successfully completed.
On October 15, 1936, Agostino entered the small seminary of Ferentino. At the time, Don Remo Bacecchi was present as director. The following year he went up to the studentate of Fara Novarese to continue the study, discernment and formation programs at more demanding levels. For the boys, the Fara Novarese experience constituted a hard test, not only for the discipline, which was then in force rather severe in the seminaries, but above all for the environmental differences of culture and climate. The difficulties did not weaken Augustine's will, on the contrary they tempered his will, they were an opportunity for him to bring out and refine beautiful qualities of intelligence and character, above all in the field of fidelity to the voices of the heart.
With the grace of the Lord and with the help of his educators, the numerous situations of sacrifice were transformed into useful building material for his person: they prompted him to base his life on prayer interwoven with faith, experienced in spontaneous dialogue with God and in the rhythm of observance of the rules. On 12 September 1941, after eight days of spiritual exercises, he began his novitiate in the house of Barza d'Ispra (Varese). He spent four years there: fervent, fundamental for his future. The first two were of novitiate, concluded on 12 September 1943 with the first religious profession. In the same House he continued his studies for two years. At the beginning of September 1945 he went to Como for the theological four-year period. On 2 April 1949 he was ordained a deacon and on 26 June of the same year a priest by Mons. Felice Bonomini in the cathedral of Como. Priestly ordination deeply marked the soul of Don Agostino. As the first fruits of his priestly ministry, he was entrusted with the Seminary of Anzano del Parco to which the Studentate of Fara Novarese had moved. He spent three years there, in personal study, teaching the boys and much ministry in nearby parishes. Then he was asked to leave for Rome, Via Aurelia Antica, where a similar job awaited him in the field of education and teaching middle school students. After three years, Don Agostino was called, in September 1955, to assume the role of Prefect of the Seminary. In those years the seminarians numbered about eighty.
In 1971 he was elected Superior of the Casa S. Giuseppe in Via Aurelia Antica, the Center for our children with disabilities. He lived this difficult experience with the intensity of a father. At the end of the three-year period, Don Agostino was once again sent as Superior of the Alberobello community and director of the Apulian minor seminary. In Alberobello his availability made him a spiritual father sought after and appreciated by the clergy, lay people, young people and simple faithful of the people of God. His propensity to cultivate souls convinced the Major Superiors that Don Agostino was the ideal spiritual father for our clerics of the International Theological Seminary in Rome. In Rome, in fact, Don Agostino lived fully for 27 years, the combination of the Founder "Give Bread and Lord". In fact, to his task as spiritual father of the seminary he added moments of significant presence among our boys in the ward of the most seriously ill, especially at lunch and dinner times. He went among them with the passion of faith and friend, he made himself available to feed those who were having the most difficulty, he conversed with them inventing truly imaginative ways to communicate. Even the staff of our Center found in him the wisdom of a word, the direction for a greater commitment, accompaniment in difficult moments of personal and family life.
In 2003 he began to feel the first heart problems which finally convinced him in 2004 to be admitted to the Gemelli Polyclinic for surgery. He underwent the operation. Everything seemed to have gone well, but suddenly, on July 13, his heart stopped beating. The time had come for his meeting with the Heavenly Father.