Rauti has played Jesus on Good Friday for 41 years. He only missed one year because of a back operation. Although he began doing the procession with a small cross, Rauti now carries a wooden cross nearly five centimetres thick and double his height.

Rauti’s energy, fit appearance and the neatly trimmed beard that he dyes brown before Holy Week could make it easy to mistake him for a much younger man.

“I do it because I’m a Roman Catholic,” he said, in his strong Italian accent. “Everybody has a cross. Some people have a big cross, some people have a small cross. I pray every time that I hope God gives me more strength to do it (again).”

For three days leading up to the Way of the Cross, Rauti fasts and barely sleeps. Playing Christ is a touching experience for him every year. He tries to make it an experience that will strengthen the faith of others.

“When the people look to me a lot of old people cry and they say to the kids, to the grandchildren ‘See how Jesus suffered for us,’ ” he said.

Upon hearing people cry, he also cries inside “because Jesus suffered for us.”

When the actress playing Veronica lifts a cloth to wipe his face, Rauti literally meets Jesus face to face, as he is the first person to see Christ’s image printed on the shroud.

“I feel like something goes inside my body, like the spirit of something — something very powerful, every year,” he said.

Some years have been colder than others, with snow still covering the ground, but Rauti refuses to wear gloves, extra layers or a hat.

One year, he walked the hour-long trek barefoot. Yet somehow, he has never become sick, he said. He does however, ice the shoulder that supports the cross for a couple of weeks afterwards

One of the challenges of carrying a real cross is re-enacting the falls of Christ. Sometimes, he has fallen in places that weren’t planned, but he has practised his technique so as not to drop the cross and risk it hitting the soldiers who follow him on either side.

Fr. Gregory Botte, the pastor at St. Francis of Assisi, said although Rauti carries the wooden cross, he and his wife carry a real cross in their heart, as they have dealt with sickness in his family for the past 40 years. But his example of faith and strength really sticks out to the community.

“They see a man of his age and stature living very much what he believes in every day,” Botte said.

“He’s a good parishioner, dedicated to the parish, a good Christian, a very good father and a good husband. I hope he lives another 100 years.”