Luigi Guanella

The work of Luigi Guanella is organized around the Casa della Divina Provvidenza (House of Divine Providence), which he established in Como in 1886 as the motherhouse of his foundations. Starting from the community of young women gathered in Pianello Lario in 1881, he gave birth to the female congregation of the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence, dedicated to the care of orphans, the elderly, the sick, and the disabled. In parallel, he founded the male branch of the Servants of Charity (Servi della Carità), whose motto "In omnibus caritas" ("In all things, charity") summarizes its spirit. These institutions welcomed the poorest and most fragile individuals whom the society of the time tended to abandon. Guanella was also concerned with the fate of Italian emigrants and extended his action beyond Italy, as far as the United States. In 1913, supported by Pope Pius X, he established the Pious Union of St. Joseph, intended for prayer for the dying and the terminally ill. His work combines contemplation and concrete action in the service of the most destitute neighbor.

The holiness of Luigi Guanella is rooted in an absolute trust in Divine Providence and in an active charity toward the poor, whom he viewed as the very presence of Christ. His spirituality achieves a synthesis between contemplation and action: union with God nourishes service to one's neighbor, and service to one's neighbor itself becomes a form of prayer. During his canonization, Pope Benedict XVI presented him as "a prophet and an apostle of charity," who became "a companion and teacher, comfort and support for the poorest and weakest." Guanella expressed his own inner urgency through a formula that has remained famous: one cannot stop as long as there are poor to be helped. Renowned for his tireless zeal and his closeness to the excluded, he was surrounded by a reputation for holiness very early on, which was confirmed after his death and supported the opening of his cause.

Luigi Guanella was beatified on October 25, 1964, by Pope Paul VI in St. Peter's Basilica. The miracle accepted for his canonization was the unexplained healing of William Glisson, a young American from Pennsylvania who suffered a severe traumatic brain injury following a rollerblading accident: having fallen into a coma after two surgical procedures and a guarded prognosis, he recovered his health in a manner deemed scientifically inexplicable. The medical commission of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints recognized the absence of a natural explanation in November 2009, and the healing was attributed to the intercession of Blessed Guanella. At the conclusion of the process, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed him a saint on October 23, 2011, in St. Peter's Square, during the same celebration as Guido Maria Conforti and Bonifacia Rodríguez de Castro. His liturgical memorial is set for October 24, the anniversary of his death.

The legacy of Luigi Guanella continues through the two congregations he founded, the Servants of Charity and the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence, present today on several continents in the service of the disabled, the sick, the elderly, youth in difficulty, and the poor. The House of Divine Providence in Como remains the motherhouse of the Opera don Guanella, centered around the Sacred Heart Sanctuary which he had built and where his remains rest, having become a place of pilgrimage. The Pious Union of St. Joseph, which he established for prayer on behalf of the dying, also perpetuates his solicitude for the agonized. A figure of Catholic social charity at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, Guanella is honored as a model of service to the weakest, in the lineage of the great Italian charitable founders of his time.