Born in Cantù (Como) on May 4, 1789.
Died in Dongo (Como) on November 13, 1855.
Ordained priest for the Ambrosian diocese in 1813, he was provost of S. Stefano in Milan when in 1833 he was elected bishop of Como. He endowed the diocese with a suitable gymnasium-philosophical seminary, purchasing the convent of S. Abondio from the state property and made three times the pastoral visit of the whole diocese. He had the reformed Friars Minor return to their convent in Dongo and the Somascan fathers to the Collegio Gallio. In 1852 he established the Canossian Sisters in Como and the following year in Gravedona. Bishop of integrity, of austere sobriety, he had to suffer for the repeated attempts made by the Valtellina and Ticino to escape the jurisdiction of the bishop of Como.
On the catechism edited by Msgr. Romanò, little Luigi Guanella learned his first religious notions from his mother Maria. From the hands of the same bishop he received the sacrament of confirmation on 30 June 1849. He met him personally at least once when he went to the curia in Como, accompanied by Don Gaudenzio Bianchi, to thank him for the free place granted to him in the Gallio college. "It was 1854 - Don Guanella recalled mixing up the dates - and before it was over, there were the splendid funerals of that good father, funerals whose memory I keep alive".
Sources
- The Catholic hierarchy, vol. VII, p. 158.
- Hyacinth Turazza, The succession of the bishops of Como, pp. 205-207.
- Piero Pellegrini Luigi Guanella: the formative years 1842-1866, pp. 171, 224-225, 254, 347.
Guanellian sources
- Louis Guanella To Msgr. Alfonso Archi, bishop of Como. Personal memories and tributes, in "The Divine Providence", 1906, p. 3.
- Congregation of Sacred Rites, Comen. seu Mediolanen. Beatificationis et canonizationis servi Dei Aloysii Guanella [...]. Super virtuous position, Romae, Typis Guerra et Belli, 1950, pp. 597-599 (witness Don Martino Cugnasca).
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Hyacinth Turazza, The succession of the bishops of Como, P. 206.
AM Dieguez
Guanellian Encyclopaedia
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