Saint Luigi Orione (1872-1940) was an Italian Catholic priest, founder of the Little Work of Divine Providence (Piccola Opera della Divina Provvidenza) — the Sons of Divine Providence — and of several women's congregations devoted to serving the poorest. A tireless apostle of charity, he was in turn a road-paver's son, a pupil of Saint John Bosco, a seminarian founding oratories, and a builder of colleges, hospices and shrines on three continents[1].
His whole life is summed up in the cry that opened each of his letters: "Anime e anime!" — "Souls, souls!"[2]. Convinced that "only charity will save the world"[3], he made love of the last — orphans, the elderly, the sick, beggars, fallen priests — the very place where Christ is proclaimed. His Little Cottolengos, opened in Genoa, Milan, Buenos Aires, São Paulo and Santiago de Chile, welcomed "those whom nobody wants", whom he called his "pearls of Providence"[4].
A witness to two of the greatest catastrophes of twentieth-century Italy — the earthquakes of Messina (1908) and of the Marsica (1915) — he rushed there to snatch orphans from the rubble; among them was the future writer Ignazio Silone, who kept all his life the memory of that "strange priest"[5]. His absolute fidelity to the Pope, sealed by a special vow in his constitutions, made him, at the heart of the Modernist crisis, one of the surest servants of the Roman Church[6].
Dead in Sanremo on 12 March 1940, the poor priest of Tortona was beatified on 26 October 1980 and then canonised on 16 May 2004 by Saint John Paul II — the same day as Saint Annibale Maria di Francia[7]. This article follows the figure of the saint: his childhood, his formation, his foundations, his spirituality of the Cross and of Providence, and the path that led him to the altars.
Biographical landmarks
- 23 June 1872Birth in Pontecurone
Son of Vittorio Orione, road-paver, and Carolina Feltri; a poor and believing family of the diocese of Tortona.
- 1882-1885Apprentice road-paver
From the age of ten to thirteen, he helps his father on the roads of Piedmont before entering the Franciscan convent.
- Sept. 1885 – June 1886With the Franciscans of Voghera
A postulant at thirteen; a serious pneumonia forces him to return to his family.
- Oct. 1886 – Aug. 1889At Don Bosco's Oratory (Valdocco, Turin)
A pupil of Saint John Bosco, who promises him: "noi saremo sempre amici" ("we shall always be friends").
- 16 October 1889Entry to the seminary of Tortona
He begins his philosophy there, already sensitive to the social and ecclesial questions of his time.
- 3 July 1892First San Luigi oratory
A twenty-year-old cleric, he opens in Tortona his first oratory for the Christian education of children.
- 15 October 1893San Bernardino College
Foundation of a college for poor boys: the first house of the future Little Work.
- 13 April 1895Priestly ordination
Ordained priest in Tortona by Bishop Igino Bandi.
- 21 March 1903Recognition of the Sons of Divine Providence
The Bishop of Tortona canonically approves the Piccola Opera della Divina Provvidenza, with its special vow of fidelity to the Pope.
- after 28 Dec. 1908Vicar general of Messina (about three years)
After the earthquake, he hastens to rescue the orphans; Saint Pius X appoints him vicar general of the diocese of Messina, an office he exercised for about three years.
- 13 January 1915The Marsica earthquake
A new mobilisation; he gathers hundreds of orphans, including Ignazio Silone and his brother Romolo.
- 29 June 1915Little Missionary Sisters of Charity
Foundation of the active women's branch, devoted to serving the poor.
- 1913-1937Missionary expansion
Brazil (1913), Argentina and Uruguay (1921), Palestine, Poland, Rhodes, United States, England, Albania.
- 12 March 1940Death in Sanremo
He dies at 67 whispering: "Gesù! Gesù! Vado".
- 26 October 1980Beatification
John Paul II proclaims him blessed (Passamonti miracle).
- 16 May 2004Canonisation
John Paul II inscribes him in the catalogue of saints, Saint Peter's Square (Penacca miracle).
A poor childhood and the years of formation (1872-1895)
Pontecurone: a road-paver's son
Luigi Orione was born on 23 June 1872 in Pontecurone, a large farming town of the diocese of Tortona, on the border of Piedmont and Lombardy. His father, Vittorio Orione, was a selciatore — a road-paver; his mother, Carolina Feltri, was a housewife of deep faith[8]. The family was poor, and the child knew manual labour early: from 1882 to 1885, between the ages of ten and thirteen, he accompanied his father on building sites, an apprentice paver carrying stones and sand[9]. From this harsh childhood, Orione kept a particular tenderness for workers, the poor and the humble, and a fragile health that he would strain all his life.
With the Franciscans of Voghera (1885-1886)
In September 1885, at thirteen, the boy entered as a postulant with the Franciscan Friars Minor of Voghera, drawn by the ideal of poverty of Saint Francis of Assisi[10]. But in June 1886, a serious pneumonia, which nearly carried him off, forced him to leave the convent and return to his family[11]. This apparent failure steered his life elsewhere: once healed, he sought another path and knocked on the door of the most radiant work of Catholic Piedmont at the time.
At Don Bosco's school (1886-1889)
From October 1886 to August 1889, Luigi Orione was a pupil at the Oratory of Valdocco, in Turin, under the direction of Saint John Bosco himself[12]. The old founder of the Salesians, who would die in 1888, noticed the young man and formed with him a bond that Orionine tradition holds to be decisive. According to the biography of the Holy See, Don Bosco assured him of his friendship:
"We shall always be friends." — Saint John Bosco to Luigi Orione, Turin[13]
At Valdocco, Orione breathed the Salesian pedagogy of kindness and presence, but also the boldness of an apostolate turned toward the most abandoned young people. It was also in Turin that he discovered the work of Saint Joseph Benedict Cottolengo — the Piccola Casa della Divina Provvidenza, which freely welcomed the sick and the incurable[14]. Don Bosco and Cottolengo would be the two great models of his whole life: to the two of them he owes the twin watchword of his future work — the education of youth and the welcome of the incurable.
The seminary of Tortona and the first oratory (1889-1895)
In October 1889, Orione entered the diocesan seminary of Tortona[15]. He did not wait for ordination to act. As early as 3 July 1892, a twenty-year-old cleric, he opened in his town a first oratory dedicated to Saint Aloysius Gonzaga (San Luigi) for the Christian education of poor children[16]. The following year, on 15 October 1893, he founded in the San Bernardino district a college for boys without resources: it was the first stone of the future Little Work[17].
On 13 April 1895, Luigi Orione was ordained priest in Tortona by his bishop, Bishop Igino Bandi[18]. At twenty-two, the young priest already had children, collaborators and a very clear intuition around him: to trust Divine Providence in order to build, without capital, a work of boundless charity.
The founder: the Little Work of Divine Providence
From oratory to congregation
Around the young priest there gradually gathered collaborators — clerics, coadjutor brothers, priests — who shared his ideal. This nucleus took the name of the Little Work of Divine Providence (Piccola Opera della Divina Provvidenza): "little" out of humility and trust, because it counted only on God to live[19]. On 21 March 1903, the Bishop of Tortona granted it canonical recognition as a religious congregation of diocesan right[20].
The Sons of Divine Providence and the vow to the Pope
The men's branch — priests, coadjutor brothers — took the name of the Sons of Divine Providence (Figli della Divina Provvidenza). Its distinctive mark, inscribed from the outset in its constitutions, is a special fourth vow of fidelity to the Pope and the Holy See[21]. For Orione, this vow was no formality: it expressed a theological conviction that the unity of the Church passes through unwavering attachment to the Successor of Peter. At the heart of the Modernist crisis then tearing apart the Italian Church, this Roman fidelity made him, in the eyes of Saint Pius X, a sure ally[22].
The Hermits of Divine Providence
As early as 1899, Orione also founded a contemplative and laborious branch, the Hermits of Divine Providence, under the Benedictine motto "ora et labora" ("pray and work")[23]. These hermits, often farmer or artisan brothers, sustain by prayer and manual labour the active apostolate of the congregation, giving the work a balance between action and contemplation.
The women's branches
On 29 June 1915, Orione founded the congregation of the Little Missionary Sisters of Charity (Piccole Suore Missionarie della Carità), the active women's branch devoted to serving the poor, the sick and children[24]. In 1927, he created an entirely contemplative and adoring branch, the Blind Sacramentine Sisters (Suore Sacramentine non vedenti): blind religious women consecrated to perpetual Eucharistic adoration, offering their very infirmity as praise[25]. He would also found the Contemplative Sisters of Jesus Crucified[26]. The whole forms a spiritual family in which each member — active or contemplative, sighted or blind — has his place in the one work of charity.
The Little Cottolengos
In imitation of Saint Joseph Benedict Cottolengo, Orione opened homes for the cases nobody wants to take on: abandoned elderly, infirm, disabled, incurable sick. He called them the Little Cottolengos (Piccoli Cottolengo), and founded them in Genoa, Milan, Buenos Aires, São Paulo and Santiago de Chile[27]. For him, these houses were not only social works: they were pulpits from which Christ is preached by charity alone.
"The Little Cottolengos must be pulpits preaching Christ; they must tell the world that God exists, that Providence exists, that the soul is immortal, that eternal life exists." — Saint Luigi Orione[28]
The man of heroic charity
Messina 1908: vicar general amid the rubble
On 28 December 1908, an earthquake followed by a tsunami razed Messina and Reggio Calabria, killing some 90,000 people — one of the greatest natural disasters of twentieth-century Europe[29]. Orione hastened there at once and devoted himself to rescuing and gathering the orphans. His charity and organisation struck the ecclesial authority: Saint Pius X appointed him vicar general of the diocese of Messina, an office he exercised for about three years in a devastated local Church, helping to rebuild diocesan life[30].
The Marsica 1915 and the orphans: the Ignazio Silone episode
On 13 January 1915, a new earthquake destroyed the region of the Marsica (Avezzano, Abruzzi), killing nearly 30,000 people[31]. Orione rushed there again and gathered hundreds of children. Among them were two brothers from Pescina, orphaned of their mother buried under the rubble: Secondino Tranquilli — the future writer Ignazio Silone — and his brother Romolo[32].
The episode has remained famous. When King Victor Emmanuel III visited the devastated towns, Orione, without authorisation, loaded orphan children into a royal automobile to shelter them; the sovereign, put on the spot, ended up leaving him the vehicle, a gift regularised by a telegram of 23 January 1915[33]. Orione himself accompanied Secondino to the Convitto San Romolo in Sanremo and watched over his schooling[34].
Silone, who later became one of the great Italian writers of the century — and long estranged from the faith — kept all his life an intact admiration for his benefactor. In Uscita di sicurezza (Vallecchi, Florence, 1965) he devotes to him the chapter "Incontro con uno strano prete" ("Meeting a strange priest")[35]. The portrait he fixed of Don Orione — published as early as 1949, before the book — says enough, by its physical and spiritual precision, of the mark left by the saint:
"Despite his Piedmontese origin, by his average height, his dark complexion and other features, Don Orione looked more like a Sardinian peasant. […] His gaze was, at the same time, kindly and deep." — Ignazio Silone, "A costo di essere frainteso" (1949)[36]
"Undoubtedly, he believed in God," with "the continual presence and assistance of God." — Ignazio Silone, "A costo di essere frainteso" (1949)[37]
This testimony from a man whom everything kept away from the Church says enough about the power of attraction of Orione's holiness: not eloquence, but a disarming simplicity and truthfulness.
"Solo la carità salverà il mondo"
All this overflowing activity was not philanthropy: it sprang from a burning theological conviction. For Orione, charity was not one means among others — it was the force that saves the world and makes the Church credible.
"Only charity will save the world." — Saint Luigi Orione[38]
He liked to say that his motto came down to a single golden rule, simple and radical:
"Do good to all, do good always, evil to no one." — Saint Luigi Orione[39]
The spirituality of Don Orione
"Anime, anime!": the passion for the salvation of souls
At the summit of all his work, Orione placed not social success but the salvation of souls. The cry "Anime! Anime!" — "Souls, souls!" — stands at the head of his letters and sums up the whole programme of his congregation[40]. For him, material help to the poor and the sick was never an end in itself: it is ordered to meeting Christ and to the eternal salvation of those he serves. "Saving souls" is the key that opens and closes each of his foundations[41].
The Cross at the centre
Orionine charity is a crucified charity. Far from all activism, Orione taught that one truly loves and serves only by climbing onto the cross with Christ. The formula, quoted by John Paul II on the day of the canonisation, is one of the strongest of his whole spirituality:
"Christ, the Church and souls are loved and served if one is on the cross and crucified — or else they are not loved and not served at all." — Saint Luigi Orione[42]
His rule of interior life, compressed into a few verbs, says the same thing:
"Suffer, keep silent, pray, love, crucify oneself and adore." — Saint Luigi Orione[43]
From this root springs, paradoxically, joy: not despite self-giving, but through it.
"Perfect joy can be found only in the perfect devotion of oneself to God and to men, to all men." — Saint Luigi Orione[44]
Marian devotion: the Madonna della Guardia
Orione was a great apostle of the Virgin Mary, whom he honoured under the popular title of the Madonna della Guardia. He built in Tortona the shrine of the Madonna della Guardia (1931), then the shrine of the Madonna di Caravaggio at Fumo (1938)[45]. These shrines were not for him prestige monuments, but centres of popular prayer, refuges for poor pilgrims and schools of Marian trust for his spiritual sons and daughters.
"Ave Maria e avanti!": trust in Providence
The psychological and spiritual mainspring of the whole work is a boundless trust in Divine Providence, sealed by Marian prayer. Orione would launch to his collaborators, in the face of difficulties and lack of money, a watchword that has remained proverbial:
"Look to heaven, pray, then forward with courage, and work. Hail Mary, and forward!" — Saint Luigi Orione[46]
This trust was no naivety: it went hand in hand with gruelling work and a keen sense of organisation. But it forbade discouragement: for Orione, Providence never fails the one who throws himself upon it for the poor.
Love of the Pope and of the Church
At the heart of Orione's spirituality shines a passionate love of the Church and of the Pope. The special vow of fidelity to the Sovereign Pontiff, inscribed in the constitutions of the Sons of Divine Providence, expresses a certainty: Christ is not served against his Church nor beside her, but in visible communion with Peter[47]. At a time when Modernism and anticlericalism were shaking Italy, Orione opposed not polemic but an overflowing charity and a flawless Roman obedience, which earned him the trust of four popes — from Saint Pius X to Pius XII[48].
Missionary expansion
Far from retreating into Piedmont, Orione wanted a missionary work, overflowing the frontiers of Italy. In his lifetime, the Little Work took root on three continents, at the cost of long journeys that his fragile health made heroic — notably two prolonged stays in Latin America (1921-1922 and 1934-1937)[49].
| Year | Country / region | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1913 | Brazil | First mission outside Italy |
| 1921 | Argentina and Uruguay | Charitable works and parishes; Little Cottolengos of Buenos Aires |
| 1921 | Palestine | Presence in the Holy Land |
| 1923 | Poland | Implantation in central Europe |
| 1925 | Rhodes | Aegean / eastern Mediterranean |
| 1934 | United States | Service to Italian migrants |
| 1935 | England | British implantation |
| 1936 | Albania | Work in the Balkans |
For Orione, this deployment was not a conquest but a radiance of charity: everywhere the same programme — gathering the poor, educating youth, proclaiming Christ — and the same trust in Providence to provide for everything.
Death in Sanremo (1940)
The last months
Worn out by fifty years of work, travel and privation, Orione suffered from a serious heart condition. His sons sent him to rest in Sanremo, on the Ligurian Riviera, hoping the mild climate would relieve his exhausted heart[50]. He himself knew his end was near; he had always said he wished to die not in comfort but "among the poor"[51].
"Gesù! Gesù! Vado"
Saint Luigi Orione died in Sanremo on 12 March 1940, at 67[52]. His last words, handed down by his sons, sum up his whole life stretched toward Christ:
"Gesù! Gesù! Vado" — "Jesus! Jesus! I am coming to you". — Saint Luigi Orione, last words, 12 March 1940[53]
The body found intact (1965) and the shrine of Tortona
At the first exhumation, in 1965, Don Orione's body was found intact[54]. It is venerated today in the shrine of the Madonna della Guardia in Tortona, which he himself had built, now the heart of the Orionine pilgrimage and the destination of faithful from all over the world[55].
From blessed to saint: the cause of canonisation
The miracle of the beatification: Giorgio Passamonti (1980)
The miracle retained for the beatification was the unexplained healing of the young Giorgio Vincenzo Passamonti, attributed to the intercession of Don Orione[56]. This healing having been recognised as miraculous, Saint John Paul II beatified Luigi Orione on 26 October 1980[57].
The miracle of the canonisation: Pietro Penacca (2004)
The miracle of the canonisation was the unexplained healing of Pietro Penacca, known as Pierino, attributed to the intercession of Don Orione[58]. This healing having been recognised as miraculous, the way was opened to canonisation[59].
The homily of Saint John Paul II (16 May 2004)
On 16 May 2004, in Saint Peter's Square, John Paul II canonised Luigi Orione together with five other blesseds — including Saint Annibale Maria di Francia[60]. In his homily, the Pope reread Orione's life in the light of the charity of Christ, quoting the Book of Acts: "These men who have devoted their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 15:26)[61]. He described the heart of the saint as a heart
"without frontiers, because it was enlarged by the charity of Christ." — Saint John Paul II, canonisation homily, 16 May 2004[62]
The Orionine legacy today
More than a century after its foundation, the Little Work of Divine Providence is present on several continents: its Sons of Divine Providence, its Little Missionary Sisters of Charity and its Orionine lay people run schools, parishes, welcome homes, Little Cottolengos, homes for disabled persons and works for youth and migrants[63]. Everywhere, the same motto serves as programme: "Anime e anime!", and the conviction behind it:
"Only charity will save the world." — Saint Luigi Orione[64]
The poor son of the Pontecurone road-paver thus left the Church a living demonstration: that boundless trust in Divine Providence, sealed to the Cross and to love of the Pope, can build, without capital, a charity capable of crossing frontiers and centuries.
Further reading
- Saint John Bosco — the master of Valdocco whose pupil Orione was (1886-1889)
- Saint Pius X — the pope who appointed him vicar general of Messina
- Saint John Paul II — the pope who beatified him (1980) and canonised him (2004)
- Saint Annibale Maria di Francia — canonised the same day as Don Orione, 16 May 2004
- Saint Francis of Assisi — the Franciscan ideal of poverty that first attracted the young Orione
Notes and References
Official biography of Saint Luigi Orione for the canonisation, Holy See, Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, vatican.va. Reference source for: birth (23 June 1872, Pontecurone) and death (12 March 1940, Sanremo); road-paving apprenticeship (1882-1885); Franciscans of Voghera (Sept. 1885 – June 1886); Don Bosco's Oratory at Valdocco (Oct. 1886 – Aug. 1889); entry to the seminary of Tortona (16 Oct. 1889); first oratory (3 July 1892); San Bernardino College (15 Oct. 1893); ordination (13 April 1895); Hermits of Divine Providence (1899); canonical recognition of the Sons of Divine Providence (21 March 1903) with the vow of fidelity to the Pope; Little Missionary Sisters of Charity (29 June 1915); Blind Sacramentines (1927); earthquakes of Messina (1908) and of the Marsica (13 Jan. 1915); vicar general of Messina; missions to Brazil (1913), Argentina-Uruguay (1921), Palestine, Poland (1923), Rhodes (1925), United States (1934), England (1935), Albania (1936); shrines of the Madonna della Guardia in Tortona (1931) and of the Madonna di Caravaggio at Fumo (1938); last words; beatification (26 Oct. 1980) and canonisation (16 May 2004).
1 6 7 9 10 12 15 16 17 29 31 47 52 57"Anime! Anime!" — motto and programme-cry of Don Orione, placed at the head of his letters. See the notice "Anime! Anime!", San Benedetto religious province of the Sons of Divine Providence, donorione-genova.it, and messaggidonorione.it. Cited for the primacy of the salvation of souls over the material work.
2 40 41Saint John Paul II, homily of the canonisation of 16 May 2004, Saint Peter's Square (canonisation of Saints Luigi Orione, Annibale Maria di Francia, Josep Manyanet y Vives, Nimatullah Kassab Al-Hardini, Paola Elisabetta Cerioli and Gianna Beretta Molla), official text on vatican.va. Cited for: Acts 15:26 ("These men who have devoted their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ"); "Christ, the Church and souls are loved and served on the cross and crucified" (Italian: "Cristo, la Chiesa, le anime si amano e si servono in croce e crocifissi"); a heart "without frontiers, enlarged by the charity of Christ"; "only charity will save the world" ("solo la carità salverà il mondo"); "perfect joy can be found only in the perfect devotion of oneself to God and to men, to all men".
3 38 42 44 60 61 62 64Biography of Saint Luigi Orione, Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Holy See, causesanti.va. Cited for: the father's trade (road-paver) and the mother's faith; the pneumonia of 1886; Don Bosco's promise ("noi saremo sempre amici"); the discovery of Cottolengo's work in Turin; the vow of fidelity to the Pope and Roman fidelity during the Modernist crisis; the Little Cottolengos of Genoa, Milan, Buenos Aires, São Paulo and Santiago as "pulpits" preaching Christ; the interior rule ("Soffrire, tacere, pregare, amare, crocifiggersi e adorare"); the heart condition and the transfer to Sanremo; the body found intact at the exhumation of 1965 and venerated at the shrine of the Madonna della Guardia in Tortona; the trust of four popes (from Pius X to Pius XII).
4 8 11 13 14 19 22 27 28 43 50 51 63Ignazio Silone devotes to Don Orione, in Uscita di sicurezza (Vallecchi, Florence, 1965), the chapter entitled "Incontro con uno strano prete" ("Meeting a strange priest"). The two portraits quoted here come from his article "A costo di essere frainteso", published in Vogue in 1949 and reprinted by Italia – San Francisco on 27 March 1964: "Per la statura media, il colorito bruno, e altri tratti somatici, benché piemontese, Don Orione somigliava piuttosto ad un contadino sardo […]. Esso [il suo sguardo] era, nello stesso tempo, benevolo e profondo"; "Indubbiamente egli credeva in Dio", with a "continua presenza ed assistenza di Dio". Source: Messaggi Don Orione (journal of Orionine history and news), messaggidonorione.it (notes 10 and 15: Vallecchi 1965 reference and text of the 1949 article).
5 35 36 37Official biography of Saint Luigi Orione for the canonisation, Holy See (vatican.va), passage on formation and ordination: entry to the seminary of Tortona on 16 October 1889; first oratory on 3 July 1892; San Bernardino College on 15 October 1893; priestly ordination on 13 April 1895, the bishop presenting the clerical habit to six pupils of the college the same day.
18Official biography of the Holy See (vatican.va), passages on the foundations: Hermits of Divine Providence branch (1899); canonical recognition by decree of Bishop Igino Bandi of 21 March 1903, with 4th vow of fidelity to the Pope; Little Missionary Sisters of Charity on 29 June 1915; adoring Sacramentine Sisters for welcoming blind women, "later joined by the Contemplatives of Jesus Crucified" (Italian text: "cui si aggiungeranno successivamente anche le Contemplative di Gesù Crocifisso").
20 21 23 24 25 26Official biography of the Holy See (vatican.va): "By the will of Pius X, he was vicar general of the diocese of Messina for three years". The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints (causesanti.va) gives the sequence: after the earthquake of December 1908 (90,000 dead), "Per diretta volontà di Pio X fu nominato Vicario Generale della diocesi di Messina. Lasciata la Sicilia dopo tre anni…" — appointed after 28 December 1908, remained about three years.
30"100° terremoto Marsica: anche Ignazio Silone tra gli orfani raccolti da Don Orione", AgenSIR (Servizio Informazione Religiosa, Italian Bishops' Conference), 12 January 2015, agensir.it. Cited for: the Marsica earthquake of 13 January 1915 (≈ 30,000 dead); orphans gathered by Don Orione, including Secondino Tranquilli (Ignazio Silone) and his brother Romolo.
32"Don Orione e i fratelli Secondino (Silone) e Romolo Tranquilli", Messaggi Don Orione, messaggidonorione.it. Cited for: Silone's mother (Marianna Delli Quadri) buried under the rubble; Romolo pulled from the ruins and entrusted to the Patronage Regina Elena; the episode of the royal automobile obtained from Victor Emmanuel III (telegram of 23 January 1915); Don Orione accompanying Secondino to the Convitto San Romolo in Sanremo and watching over his schooling.
33 34"Fare del bene a tutti, fare del bene sempre, del male a nessuno" — "Do good to all, do good always, evil to no one", a maxim of Don Orione frequently taken up by his works (notably the Piccolo Cottolengo Milanese). See the Orionine resources of the congregation, donorionemilano.it.
39Official biography of the Holy See (vatican.va): "thanks to the manual labour of his seminarians, [he] raised the shrines of Our Lady of the Guard in Tortona and of Our Lady of Caravaggio at Fumo" (Italian text: "innalzò i Santuari della Madonna della Guardia a Tortona (1931) e della Madonna di Caravaggio a Fumo (1938)").
45"Guardare al cielo, pregare, e poi avanti con coraggio e lavorare. Ave Maria e avanti!" — exhortation of Saint Luigi Orione: "Look to heaven, pray, then forward with courage, and work. Hail Mary, and forward!". See "Ave Maria e avanti!", donorioneitalia.it.
46Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, biography of Saint Luigi Orione (causesanti.va): "Godette della stima personale di Pio X, di Benedetto XV, di Pio XI, Pio XII" — the personal esteem of four popes, from Pius X to Pius XII.
48Official biography of the Holy See (vatican.va), missionary passage: sending of the first religious to Brazil in 1913, then Argentina and Uruguay (1921), Palestine (1921), Poland (1923), Rhodes (1925), United States (1934), England (1935), Albania (1936); two missionary journeys to Latin America in 1921-1922 and 1934-1937.
49Official biography of the Holy See: in Italian, "Don Orione morì il 12 marzo 1940, sospirando: "Gesù! Gesù! Vado"" (vatican.va); the French version translates: "Don Orione mourut le 12 mars 1940, en soupirant "Jésus! Jésus! Je viens vers toi"" (vatican.va).
53Official biography of the Holy See (vatican.va): "His body, found intact at the first exhumation in 1965, was placed in honour in the shrine of Our Lady of the Guard in Tortona" (Italian text: "Il suo corpo, trovato intatto alla prima riesumazione del 1965, venne posto in onore nel medesimo santuario").
54 55Miracle recognised for the beatification: healing of the young Giorgio Vincenzo Passamonti, attributed to the intercession of Don Orione, recognised as miraculous before the beatification of 26 October 1980. Name of the beneficiary after the synthesis Luigi Orione, Wikipedia (it) (which cites a document of the congregation, a link today inaccessible): no publicly verifiable decree or positio with exact page having been found, only the name and the recognition of the miracle are retained here, without the dated and quantified details of secondary accounts.
56Miracle recognised for the canonisation: healing of Pietro Penacca, known as Pierino, attributed to the intercession of Don Orione, recognised as miraculous before the canonisation of 16 May 2004. Name of the beneficiary after San Luigi Orione, Cathopedia (it), and Luigi Orione, Wikipedia (it): no publicly verifiable decree or positio with exact page having been found, only the name and the recognition of the miracle are retained here, without the dated and quantified details of secondary accounts.
58 59