Leonardo Murialdo

After his first years of ministry in the oratories of Turin, Leonard Murialdo collaborated with Saint John Bosco, who entrusted him in 1857 with the direction of the Saint Louis Oratory, near the Porta Nuova station, which he led until 1865. In 1866, he became rector of the Artigianelli College, an institution intended to take in and train poor and abandoned boys; he remained there until his death, for thirty-four years. To ensure the continuity of this work, he founded in 1873 the Pious Turinese Society of Saint Joseph, the origin of the Murialdo Josephites (Congregation of Saint Joseph), whose mission is to educate poor, orphaned, or abandoned youth in piety and through cultural and technical instruction; his collaborator Eugenio Reffo participated in this foundation. Murialdo was also a pioneer of the social apostolate: he organized the Union of Catholic Workers, contributed to the newspaper La Voce dell'Operaio, opened a Catholic employment office for the unemployed, created a mutual aid fund, agricultural colonies, vocational schools, and housing for workers. As early as December 1869, he petitioned the government in favor of legislation protecting the labor of children and women.

The spiritual life of Leonardo Murialdo was marked by a foundational intuition born of his adolescent conversion: the certainty of being enveloped by the merciful love of God. This conviction is summarized in an exclamation attributed to him: "God loves me. What joy! What consolation!". From this, he drew a spirituality of trust abandoned to Providence and of active humility, which he expressed through the motto "fare e tacere" (to act and to be silent), doing good without seeking recognition. A man of intense prayer, he loved to repeat that "the man who prays is the most powerful in the world". His charity was translated into concrete attention to the poor families he visited at home and by a persevering dedication to abandoned youth. His contemporaries highlighted the heroic exercise of Christian virtues under the appearance of an ordinary life; it was said of him that he was "extraordinary in the ordinary". This reputation for holiness, attached to his figure during his lifetime in Turin, was confirmed after his death and led to the opening of his cause.

The cause for the beatification of Leonardo Murialdo reached its conclusion under the pontificate of Paul VI. He was proclaimed blessed on November 3, 1963, and then inscribed in the catalogue of saints on May 3, 1970, during a canonization celebrated by Paul VI in the Vatican Basilica. His liturgical memorial is set for March 30, the anniversary of his death which occurred in Turin in 1900; the Salesian family and certain local customs commemorate him on May 18. The official recognition of his holiness consecrated a figure whose reputation for charity and zeal for poor youth and the working world had been durably rooted in the Turin of the second half of the 19th century. The official sources of the Church, notably the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, present Murialdo as a model of the Catholic social apostolate, attentive to the changes brought about by industrialization and concerned with the dignity of workers.

The most enduring legacy of Leonard Murialdo is the Congregation of Saint Joseph, known as the Josephites of Murialdo (or Murialdines), which he founded in 1873. This religious institute, dedicated to the education and assistance of poor, orphaned, or abandoned youth, has expanded beyond Italy and today counts houses spread across several countries, animated by priests and brothers. The figure of Murialdo remains associated with the pedagogy of charity and the attention paid to young workers; he is honored as a patron of apprentices and working youth. His social apostolate, his commitment to the popular Catholic press, and his early advocacy for the legal protection of child labor make him a prominent figure of the nascent Italian social Catholicism. His memory is maintained notably in Turin, where the essential part of his work unfolded, and within the great spiritual family stemming from the Turinese oratories linked to Saint John Bosco.