Luigi Maria Monti

On September 8, 1857, Luigi Maria Monti founded the Congregation of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception in Rome with Cipriano Pezzini, establishing themselves at the Santo Spirito Hospital. He obtained a diploma in phlebotomy from the Sapienza University of Rome. Appointed Superior General in 1877, he led the institute through epidemics. In 1882, he expanded the mission to the reception and education of orphans, opening homes in Saronno in 1886 and then in Cantù. His pedagogy was based on the "fatherhood of the educator." He conceived his congregation as a community of equal brothers, whether laymen or priests. Exhausted and nearly blind, he died in Saronno on October 1, 1900.

After his death, his reputation for holiness grew. In 1941, Cardinal Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster opened the diocesan informative process, which closed in 1951. On April 24, 2001, Pope John Paul II declared him Venerable, recognizing the heroic nature of his virtues. On April 12, 2003, a decree officially recognized a miracle attributed to his intercession, paving the way for his beatification.

Luigi Maria Monti was proclaimed blessed on November 9, 2003, by Pope John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican. The miracle accepted was the rapid, complete, and lasting healing of Giovanni Luigi Iecle, a farmer from Bosa (Sardinia), which occurred on December 26, 1961. The latter was suffering from multiple entero-cutaneous fistulas with intestinal obstruction and a septic state following several surgical interventions. His liturgical feast is set for October 1, and is celebrated on September 22 in the Archdiocese of Milan.

The spirituality of Luigi Maria Monti is deeply Marian and Christocentric, centered on the Immaculate Conception. Caring for the sick and educating orphans, whom he called the "poverelli di Cristo," was for him a way of serving the suffering Christ. Today, the Congregation of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception continues this mission in more than twenty countries (Italy, North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa, such as Cameroon, the DRC, the CAR, and Equatorial Guinea). The institute also manages health facilities such as the Luigi Maria Monti Foundation and the Dermopathic Institute of the Immaculate (IDI) in Rome.