Born in Turin on November 24, 1813.
Died there on October 4, 1882.
Born into the noble and ancient Cays family of Giletta and Casellette, he attended the high school and high school of the Society of Jesus and then graduated from the University of Turin. Married to the Countess Erminia Agnese Provana del Sabbione, with whom he had a son and a daughter who died in infancy, he was widowed early and dedicated himself to the education of his children and works of charity. President of the conferences of St. Vincent de Paul in Turin, catechist and prior of the youth of the Salesian Oratory, deputy to the Subalpine Parliament for the college of Condove from 1857 to 1860, in 1877 he felt called to withdraw from the world and to embrace salesian life. Admitted by Don Bosco, he entered the Oratory on 26 May 1877 and, guided by him, quickly completed his theological studies. On 20 September 1878 he was ordained a priest by the archbishop of Turin. Intended for the house of Annecy as director, he was then recalled to the Oratory as director of Catholic Readings and to attend to the legal affairs of the institute.
Speaking of adult vocations, "more secure and experienced", together with some confreres on March 14, 1914, Don Guanella recalled the practice of Msgr. * Pier Luigi Speranza, bishop of Bergamo, with the so-called "piper priests" and Don * Giovanni Bosco himself who allegedly consulted with him and was the first to entrust the direction of the * work of Mary Help of Christians to him. In this context he recalled the figure of "Count Cays", a former member of parliament who entered at the age of 62, who, having been ordained a priest by Don Bosco after an apprenticeship in an external oratory, founded the house in Annecy and died after 5 or 6 years.
Sources:
Biographical Dictionary of the Salesians, Turin, edited by the Salesian Press Office, [1969], p. 78.
ALBERTO MALATESTA, Ministers, deputies, senators from 1848 to 1922, vol. I, Rome, “Italiana” Biographical and Bibliographic Encyclopedia, 1941, p. 237.
Guanellian sources:
LEONARDO MAZZUCCHI, Fragmenta vitae et dictorum sac. Aloisii Guanella, manuscript, Guanellian Archive of Como, VII a 2, ff. 24-25.
Photographs:
Central Salesian Archive.