Blessed Louis Guanella to Be Canonized

Blessed Louis Guanella to Be Canonized

This report is condensed from one published by ANS on Feb. 23.

On February 21 Pope Benedict XVI approved the canonization of three blesseds. One is Fr. Louis Guanella (1842-1915), apostle of charity, who was a close friend of Don Bosco and, for three years, a member of the Salesian Congregation. The canonization ceremony will take place on Sunday, October 23, in St. Peter’s Square.

Louis Guanella was born in the Italian province of Sondrio. In 1866 he was ordained and said: “I want to become a flaming sword in the holy ministry.” His pastoral work was similar to Don Bosco’s, whom he met in Turin.

He made his Salesian temporary profession in 1874. In his first two years as a Salesian he was the director of the oratory of St. Aloysius Gonzaga in Borgo San Salvario, Turin. In November 1876 he was given the task of opening a new oratory at Trinità di Mondovì. In 1877 he was entrusted with the care of the adult vocations which Don Bosco called “the work of the Sons of Mary.”

His bishop recalled Fr. Guanella to the diocese, where in 1881 he founded the Servants of Charity and the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence. From the diocese of Como they quickly spread throughout Italy and then in the Americas, Asia, and Africa.

Fr. Guanella and Don Bosco, both friends and priests living at a time of great social change but also inequalities, responded as apostles of charity and spent their whole lives involved in the work of the salvation of every person and in the building of a better society.

The close link between the two, and Fr. Guanella’s devotion for Don Bosco, is reflected in a prayer that Fr. Guanella wrote in his foundation’s monthly magazine, Divine Providence, in August 1908: “May the great soul of John Bosco, who from on high protects the Congregation of his sons the Salesians, now too numerous to count, be pleased to turn his gaze on the Institutes of Divine Providence and extend the kindness of his protection on all those who belong to these works and especially on his devoted admirer and student, Fr. Louis Guanella.”

Fr. Guanella was beatified in 1964. Almost at once his memorial was placed on the Salesian proper calendar; it’s observed on October 24.