The Congregation of the Servants of Charity is a clerical religious congregation of pontifical right, founded in Como (Italy) by San Luigi Guanella, who recognizes as the date of foundation the March 24 1908that is, when the first members of the institute took their perpetual religious vows for the first time. The decisive year for the start of his works was 1886, in Como, with the opening of the "Small House of Divine Providence", (which would later be called simply "House of Divine Providence", to avoid confusion with the Cottolengo institute in Turin), assisted by the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence, Don Guanella dedicated energy and sacrifices to the foundation of the men's congregation to open other charity centers.
He later left the Como city to create new charitable works in various parts of Italy, Switzerland and the United States of America.
In those first founding years, the two Congregations began to take shape, the female one Daughters of Saint Mary of Providence and then the male dei Servants of Charity realizing those projects that he had in his heart and in embryo since his childhood. In 1894 he had the first priest in Pietro Moroni, ordained by Cardinal Andrea Ferrari and, in the following years others, especially by Monsignor Polin, Bishop of Adria-Rovigo. On March 24, 1908 in the Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart in Como and on March 28, in Milan the first 17 priests took their perpetual simple vows together with the Founder. An apostolic visit followed, which concluded with the pontifical decree of praise, granted on 15 August 1912. The temporary approval of the Constitutions took place on 10 July 1928, the definitive one on 16 July 1935.
The period immediately following the death of the Founder was a very delicate period that the two first successors of the Founder, Don Aurelio Bacciarini and then Don Leonardo Mazzucchi they knew how to manage with great wisdom by collecting and developing their heritage and spirituality. They continued the path begun by the Founder in fidelity to the charism, but also in innovation and traced new furrows in the field of charity.
The history of the first twenty years is proof of how the "charismatic" period of the origins needed a rearrangement and how the "continuity" of the Institute was guaranteed precisely thanks to the work of men who had enjoyed the ideals of the Founder.
In the following period, the legacy received was consolidated and numerous new works, formation houses, parishes and pastoral centers emerged, both in Italy and abroad, especially in Latin America. In recent decades the tent of charity has expanded to other nations: in India and East Asia with the presence in the Philippines, in Vietnam up to the Solomon Islands; in Africa with a presence in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Tanzania; in Europe after the initial presence in Spain, Poland, Romania and Germany.
