Sergio Sorgon was born in San Donà di Piave on 12 November 1938, the fourth of ten children. In 1949, he entered the minor seminary in Verona. In 1955, he took the religious habit and professed his vows the following year. In 1963, he was ordained a priest in St Mark's Basilica in Venice. He carried out his first ministry in Treviso and Brescia. On 7 June 1969, he left for Madagascar with two other priests to start a Carmelite mission on the island. His missionary work over the course of 16 years was intense and varied in terms of commitment and different places of residence. On the afternoon of 7 January 1985, he was expected in Moramanga, a town 120 km from the capital, where he was parish priest and Episcopal Vicar of the diocese. He had left Tananarive on his motorbike. He was waited for in vain in Moramanga, and his horribly mutilated body was found the following day at the edge of a forest.