Giuseppe Benedetto Cottolengo

Giuseppe Benedetto Cottolengo or Joseph Benedict Cottolengo (3 May 1786 – 30 April 1842) was the founder of the and is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

Early life Cottolengo was born on 3 May 1786, into a middle-class family, in Bra, then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia. The eldest of twelve children (six of whom died in infancy), on 2 October 1802, he became a Franciscan tertiary. In 1805, he entered the seminary at Asti. Two years later, it was closed, and he was forced to continue his studies at home. Cottolengo was ordained a priest on 8 June 1811.

Assigned as a curate to Corneliano D'Alba, he completed his doctorate in theology in Turin, and in 1818 was accepted as a canon of the Basilica of Corpus Domini in Turin. Cottolengo donated all his gifts, donations, fees for preaching, and Mass stipends to the poor.

Charitable work At the time, Turin was still recovering from the French occupation and under the pressure of intense immigration from the countryside, which caused serious social problems and poverty. The city was rife with pauperism and beggary, illiteracy and recurrent epidemics, numerous illegitimate births and high infant mortality. At the age of forty-one, after reading the life of Vincent de Paul, he came to understand that his true vocation was that of charity.

Legacy The institution that Cottolengo founded, the Little House of Divine Providence, or colloquially the "Cottolengo", still exists in Turin. The Cottolengo religious community includes Fathers, Sisters, and Brothers who still work together in activities focused on communicating God's love for the poorest. They operate facilities in Ecuador, India, Italy, Kenya, Switzerland, Tanzania, and the United States.

Cottolengo was beatified by Pope Benedict XV in 1917, and was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1934. His feast day is celebrated on 30 April. Cottolengo is invoked against infectious diseases. He is also invoked against cirrhosis and other liver diseases, due to a miracle attributed to him where he appeared in a dream to a nun who then miraculously recovered from cirrhosis.

Several other places are named for him. The parish of Saint Joseph Benedict Cottolengo is located in Grosseto, Italy. There is a Via San Giuseppe Benedetto Cottolengo in Pisa. One of the most important charity institutions in Central Brazil is the Sao Jose Bento Cotollengo Institute, in Trindade, Goiás.

Joseph Benedict Cottolengo was listed among the saints of charity by Pope Benedict XVI in his 2005 encyclical Deus caritas est.

St. Joseph is a character in Bruce Marshall's 1960 novel The Divided Lady. In the 2006 Italian film Una cosa in mente. Giuseppe Benedetto Cottolengo ("One thing in mind: Giuseppe Benedetto Cottolengo"), Cottolengo is played by Massimo Wertmüller.