Born in Nousty (France) on May 4, 1855.
Died in Rome on December 19, 1936.
A brilliant student of the college of Betharram, he made his first vows the day after the approval of the institute, on 1 November 1875, and his perpetual vows on 3 November 1878. He taught in the colleges of Oloron and Betharram until 1890 when he was sent to Bethlehem as director of the new scholasticate. Recalled from Palestine in 1897, he was appointed superior of the college of Moncade in Orthez, where he was expelled by the French government in 1903. He was then sent to found the house of Traona in Valtellina, of which he was superior until the community withdrew. in 1912. He then went to Rome as rector of the church of the Guardian Angel until 1915, when the Betarramite fathers received the care of the church of Our Lady of Miracles in Piazza del Popolo. Until his death he dedicated himself to pastoral care in the confessional, to retreats to French and Italian religious communities and to the charitable assistance of every needy who had recourse to him.
Don Guanella had frequent and cordial relations with Father Bergez, superior of the small community of Traone, and in agreement with him he tried to avert the departure of the same missionary fathers from Valtellina in 1911. Once the community had moved to Rome, he went several times to see him to the Roman *church of the Guardian Angel, in via del Tritone. Upon hearing the news of Don Guanella's illness, Father Bergez wrote to him, in the name of his old friends and beneficiaries of the convent of S. Francesco di Traona, wishing him a "prompt and complete recovery".
Sources:
Betharramite Archive of Rome, Fondo Italie-Traona, Lettres Père Marque 4010.
Guanellian sources:
Guanellian Letters, nos. 2578, 2580.
The great mourning, in «La Divina Provvidenza», 1915, p. 166 (where the surname is erroneously reported as «Berger»).
Photographs:
Betharramite Archive in Rome (courtesy of Roberto Cornara).