Giocondo Pio Lorgna

After his ordination, Father Giocondo Pio Lorgna taught at the Dominican Studio in Bologna. From 1901 to 1905, he served as confessor and preacher at the sanctuary of the Madonna of Fontanellato, where he developed the idea of an educational work under the patronage of Blessed Imelda Lambertini.

In January 1905, he was appointed pastor of the parish of the Basilica of Saints John and Paul in Venice, a position he held for twenty-three years. Faced with the needs of the youth in working-class neighborhoods, he gathered Dominican tertiaries. On October 30, 1922, with the approval of the Patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Pietro La Fontaine, he officially founded the congregation of the Dominican Sisters of Blessed Imelda (the "Imeldines"), of which Caterina Boscolo became the first superior.

Father Lorgna led a life of intimate union with God, marked by Eucharistic adoration and Marian devotion. Close to the poor, he collaborated with Saint Louis Orione and Blessed Bartolo Longo, and recognized the holiness of Padre Pio as early as 1920. In 1926, he made a pilgrimage to Lourdes and visited several holy sites in France and Italy to study the pastoral methods of John Bosco and John Vianney.

Afflicted with stomach cancer at the beginning of 1928, he accepted his illness with serenity. He passed away on July 8, 1928, at the hospital in Venice at the age of 57. His remains rest in the Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo.

After his death, his reputation for holiness spread, carried by the Imeldine Sisters and the faithful. A diocesan informative process was opened to collect testimonies regarding his virtues.

On March 15, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing the heroic nature of his Christian virtues, thus conferring upon him the title of Venerable. The cause is currently awaiting the recognition of a miracle for his beatification.

The spirituality of the Venerable Giocondo Pio Lorgna is rooted in the Dominican charism of contemplation and transmission of the faith, with a strong Eucharistic dimension.

His primary legacy is the congregation of the Dominican Sisters of Blessed Imelda (S.D.B.I.), which received the pontifical decree of praise on March 4, 1943, and definitive approval on April 18, 1958. In 2002, the institute integrated the Maestre Luigine of Parma. Today, the Imeldine Sisters continue their educational and pastoral mission in Italy as well as in several mission countries: Albania, Brazil, Cameroon, the Philippines, Bolivia, Mexico, and Indonesia.