The Congregation of the Servants of Charity is a clerical religious congregation of pontifical right, founded in Como, Italy, by Saint Luigi Guanella. Its founding date is March 24, 1908 , when the institute's first members took perpetual vows. The decisive year for the beginning of its work was 1886, in Como, with the opening of the "Little 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, Father Guanella devoted energy and sacrifice to founding the men's congregation and opening other charitable 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 early years of the foundation, the two Congregations began to take shape: the female Congregation of the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence and the male Congregation of the Servants of Charity, realizing the projects that had been in his heart and in embryo since childhood. In 1894, he had Pietro Moroni as his first priest, ordained by Cardinal Andrea Ferrari, and in the following years, others, especially by Bishop Polin of Adria-Rovigo. On March 24, 1908, at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Como and on March 28, in Milan, the first 17 priests took their simple perpetual vows together with the Founder. An apostolic visitation followed, concluding with the pontifical decree of praise, granted on August 15, 1912. The temporary approval of the Constitutions was granted on July 10, 1928, and the definitive one on July 16, 1935.
The period immediately following the Founder's death was a very delicate one, one that the Founder's first two successors, Father Aurelio Bacciarini and then Father Leonardo Mazzucchi, wisely managed, embracing and developing his legacy and spirituality. They continued the journey begun by the Founder, faithful to his charism but also committed to innovation, and forged new paths 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.
