Francesco Spinelli

Francesco Spinelli (14 April 1853 – 6 February 1913) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Sisters Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament. Spinelli became close contemporaries of Geltrude Comensoli and Luigi Maria Palazzolo and had a previous collaboration with Comensoli in which the two established a religious institute in Bergamo before a rift between members caused Spinelli to distance himself from its work and leave.

His beatification cause opened in 1952 under Pope Pius XII with the beatification being celebrated four decades later on 21 June 1992.

Life Francesco Spinelli was born in Milan on 14 April 1853; he was baptized on the following 15 April. He - with his parents and siblings - moved from Milan to Cremona when he was still a child and would spend his summers at Vergo where in 1871 he was cured of a severe spinal problem.

On 15 December 1882 he co-founded the Sacramentine Sisters in Bergamo with Geltrude Comensoli that would devote itself to the Eucharist and to Eucharistic Adoration; the first convent opened on Via San Antonino. Spinelli was forced to leave it on 4 March 1889 after it failed due to a range of calamities including financial difficulties (the bishop decided to sever Spinelli's connection to the order as a result).

He died in 1913. The cause was formally opened on 25 January 1952 under Pope Pius XII, granting Spinelli the title of Servant of God. The C.C.S. later confirmed this miracle on 6 February 2018; Pope Francis later approved it on 6 March and Spinelli was canonized as a saint on 14 October 2018.

The current postulator assigned to the cause is Giovangiuseppe Califano.