Son of Battista and Maria Anna Cusaro, he had three older siblings: Giuseppe, Luisa and Carolina.[1] He was also the cousin of Lino Cassani, with whom he collaborated in the writing of several works.[2]
He was conscripted in 1917 and discharged in 1920.[3]. This made of him a ragazzo del '99 (boy of '99) – he was later a member of the related national association I Ragazzi del '99.[4]
In 1920 he lost his father, aged 56, to the after-effects of Spanish flu.[5]
He was ordained a priest on July 6, 1924 and celebrated his first mass in Gravellona Lomellina the following Sunday.[3] He later became assistant parish priest in Vespolate (1925-1928) and parish priest in Mergozzo (1929-1941) and in Nibbiola (1942-1989).[6]
The municipality of Nibbiola named the nursery school after him on 22 August 2011.[10] Still in Nibbiola, a street bears his name.[11]
Various articles were dedicated to him, including one in the magazine of the National Association I Ragazzi del '99 in 1973[12] and one in the magazine of the Società Storica Novarese in 2002.[13]
Honors
Cavaliere dell'Ordine di Vittorio Veneto - ribbon for ordinary uniform
"For recognized combat merits" — 26 maggio 1973[14]
Works
Ernesto Colli has published numerous volumes on the history of the towns of the Lower Novarese and Lomellina, with an extremely simple and linear style.[12]
His works range from local history to customs and folklore. To compose them, he visited every village, consulted the municipal and parish archives, and interviewed the inhabitants themselves, over a period of over for decades. In this way, important figures, the origins of places, the events of noble families, and the forgotten works of art in churches and country chapels were brought back to common knowledge.[12]
As proof of the relevance of these works, several elementary schools have adopted them as textbooks.[12]
Monographs on villages
Mergozzo nella sua storia, Tip. Cattaneo, Novara, 1933
Mergozzo nella sua storia - Opuscolo secondo, Arti Grafiche Airoldi, Intra, 1935
Memorie storiche di Garbagna Novarese, with Lino Cassani, Tip. Pietro Riva e C., Novara, 1948
Nibbiola nella sua storia, Tip. San Gaudenzio, Novara, 1952
Vespolate nella sua storia, with Lino Cassani, Tip. Provera, Novara, 1956
Gravellona Lomellina nella sua storia, Tip. San Gaudenzio, Novara, 1960
Barbavara di Gravellona Lomellina, Tip. La Moderna, Novara, 1964
Tornaco e Vignarello nella loro storia, Tip. F.lli Paltrinieri, Novara, 1967
Villanova di Cassolo nel quarto centenario della nascita di S. Luigi Gonzaga - 1568-1968, Tip. F.lli Paltrinieri, Novara, 1968
Dott. Comm. Mons. Carlo Fusi e Terdobbiate, Tip. San Gaudenzio, Novara, 1970
Olengo di Novara nella sua storia, with Gino Giarda, Tip. San Gaudenzio, Novara, 1973
Vespolate nella sua storia - Secondo volume, with Guido Longhi, Tip. San Gaudenzio, Novara, 1988
Other works
Primo decennio dell'Asilo (1962-1972) - Tradizioni di S. Caterina V. e M., Tip. San Gaudenzio, Novara, 1972
Garbagna, Nibbiola, Vespolate, Borgolavezzaro - Spunti di storia per le scuole medie - Le mie memorie, Tip. San Gaudenzio, Novara, 1978
Nobis in ARCA navigare oportuit, with Eugenio Manni, Novara, 1981
Il Castello-Rocca di Vespolate, Tip. La Cupola, Novara, 1982 (extracted from the article on the Bollettino Storico per la Provincia di Novara of the same year)
Vespolate Mergozzo Nibbiola, Tip. San Gaudenzio, Novara, 1985
Cronistoria della parrocchia B. V. Assunta in S. Caterina V. M., manuscript 1942-1989
↑ Lino Cassani; Ernesto Colli (1948). "Garbagna Novarese". Memorie storiche di Garbagna Novarese[Historical memories of Garbagna Novarese] (in Italian). Novara: Pietro Riva & C. p.13. Retrieved 8 November 2021– via Foto Emilio Alzati.
1 2 Ernesto Colli (1985). "I tre ragazzi del '99" [The three boys of '99]. Vespolate Mergozzo Nibbiola (in Italian). Novara: Tip. San Gaudenzio. p.105. Retrieved 9 November 2021– via Foto Emilio Alzati.
1 2 "Oggi, 29 Settembre, ricordiamo..."[Today, September 29th, we remember...]. Diocesi di Novara (in Italian). 29 September 2021. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
↑ "Mergozzo - Tre lutti"[Mergozzo - Three deaths]. Risveglio ossolano (in Italian). No.8. Domodossola. 27 February 1952. p.2. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
"Un «Ragazzo» che si fa onore e che onora la nostra classe" [A «Boy» who does himself proud and who honors our class]. Il Tascapane (in Italian). Associazione Nazionale «Ragazzi del '99». 1973., insert «La Domenica del Corriere».
Rossari, Maria Cristina (2002). "Una singolare figura di curato (don E. Colli)" [An unusual kind of priest (Don E. Colli)]. Bollettino Storico per la provincia di Novara (in Italian) (1). Novara: Società Storica Novarese: 249–288.
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