Felice Prinetti

Shortly after his resignation, he met Father Paolo Abbona, an Oblate of the Virgin Mary (OMV) missionary who had worked in Burma. Attracted by religious life and the desire to go on a mission, Felice Prinetti entered the novitiate of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary in Nice on December 15, 1873. He took his vows on January 6, 1875, and was ordained a priest on December 23, 1876. In 1881, his confrere Vincenzo Gregorio Berchialla was appointed Archbishop of Cagliari, in Sardinia. Father Prinetti accompanied him as secretary and collaborator. He was appointed pro-rector, then rector of the diocesan seminary of Cagliari in 1886, where he introduced important pedagogical and spiritual reforms. He also became involved in public debate by directing the Sardinian Catholic newspaper Il Risveglio from 1891 to 1894. It was in Cagliari that he founded, on September 20, 1888, the first female religious congregation of Sardinian origin: the Daughters of Saint Joseph of Genoni (Figlie di San Giuseppe di Genoni). Initially gathered around Eugenia Montixi to provide domestic and material service to the seminary, these nuns quickly extended their mission to the education of children, the care of the sick, and assistance to the elderly. In 1889, the institute acquired a property in Genoni, which became the motherhouse of the congregation. After the death of Archbishop Berchialla in 1894, Father Prinetti was recalled to Piedmont. He directed the college for Oblate aspirants in Giaveno from 1894 to 1903, then the house of Saint Francis of Assisi in Turin from 1903 to 1906, while continuing to guide his nuns in Sardinia through assiduous correspondence and regular visits. In 1906, at the request of Cardinal Pietro Maffi, Archbishop of Pisa, he was sent to that city to found the work of San Jacopo delle Piagge, a peripheral and working-class neighborhood marked by a strong anarchist influence. There, he deployed intense pastoral and social activity in collaboration with the sociologist and economist Giuseppe Toniolo (also recognized as Venerable). Together, they created numerous assistance works: a health insurance fund, a savings and credit bank for workers, the Agricultural Union of sharecroppers, youth circles, and vocational schools for young girls.

Father Felice Prinetti passed away suddenly from cardiac arrest in Pisa on May 5, 1916, after having entirely divested himself of his family inheritance to support the poor and the works of his parish. His reputation for holiness, already well established during his lifetime with Cardinal Maffi and the faithful, led to the opening of his cause for beatification and canonization.

The cause for the beatification of Father Felice Prinetti reached a major milestone under the pontificate of John Paul II. On April 19, 2004, the Pope authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic nature of his virtues, thus conferring upon him the title of Venerable. For his beatification to be pronounced, the official recognition of a miracle attributed to his intercession by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints is required. In March 2019, his mortal remains were transferred from Pisa to the chapel of the Mother House of the Daughters of Saint Joseph in Genoni, Sardinia, thus fulfilling a wish dear to his congregation.

The spirituality of the Venerable Felice Prinetti is deeply marked by the influence of Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Alphonsus Liguori, and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. It is centered on an intimate union with Christ, an absolute trust in divine mercy, and a particular devotion to Saint Joseph, whom he proposed as a model of silence, humility, and hidden service to his religious sisters. Today, the Congregation of the Daughters of Saint Joseph of Genoni continues his work on four continents (Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia), laboring in schools, hospitals, orphanages, and nursing homes, bearing witness to the legacy of charity and active contemplation bequeathed by their founder.