Luigi Guanella

Description

Luigi Guanella (19 December 1842 – 24 October 1915) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest. He was ordained a priest on May 26, 1866 in Como, and was assigned to a small parish in Savogno. Luigi is the founder of several religious institutes: the Daughters of Saint Mary of Providence (1890) and the Servants of Charity (24 March 1908) alongside his friends David Albertario and Giuseppe Toniolo. Guanella also founded the Pious Union of Saint Joseph (1914) with his supporter and first member Pope Pius X. These religious communities focused on the relief of the poor throughout the world. The Servants of Charity motto reads “In Omnibus Charitas” (“In all things Love”), which became the cornerstone for Guanella’s own life.

His older sister was the Servant of God Caterina Guanella (25 March 1841 – 13 June 1891).

Guanella received beatification on 25 October 1964 from Pope Paul VI and was canonized as saint of the Roman Catholic Church on 23 October 2011 in a celebration that Pope Benedict XVI celebrated in Saint Peter’s Square.

The informative process for the sanctification cause commenced in Como on 1 February 1923 and had been tasked in compiling available evidence and documentation that could establish both a biographical profile and reasons that would attest to the late priest’s saintliness; the process closed on 21 May 1929. Theologians compiled all of his writings and were assigned to ascertain whether or not his texts were in line with the magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church; the team approved them all in a decree of 12 July 1932.

The formal introduction of the cause came on 15 March 1939 – during the pontificate of Pope Pius XII – in which the honorific title of Servant of God was granted to Guanella as the first official stage in the process.

The apostolic process that opened after this formal introduction was held also in Como and spanned from 27 June 1940 and concluded its business on 10 October 1941. Both processes were taken to Rome to the Congregation of Rites for validation on 13 April 1945.[1]

The late priest was proclaimed to be Venerable on 6 April 1962 after Pope John XXIII acknowledged the fact that Guanella had lived a model Christian life of exemplified heroic virtue.