Luigi Monti

Luigi Maria Monti, CFIC (24 July 1825 – 1 October 1900) was an Italian Catholic religious brother and the founder of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception.

He was referred to as "Father" despite not being an ordained priest. Monti served as a nurse for most of his life and aided the ill in the Santo Spirito hospital in Rome while he was there and also worked to tend to ill people during the Brescia cholera epidemic in 1855. Monti also considered entering the religious life and joined the order of Lodovico Pavoni for a brief period of time.

The beatification cause for opened under Pope Pius XII in 1941 and he became titled as a Servant of God, the first stage in the process for sainthood. Pope John Paul II named him as Venerable on 24 April 2001 on the account of his heroic virtue and later beatified him at St. Peter's Square on 9 November 2003.

Life

Luigi Maria Monti was born in 1825 in Milan as the eighth of eleven children to Angelo (d. 1837) and Teresa Monti. His father died when Monti was twelve.

Monti formed a small group of craftsman and farmers at the store he managed devoted to the Sacred Heart. He made a private vow of obedience and to remain chaste to God on 8 December 1846. and the writings were approved on 8 February 1963. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints validated the process on 16 June 1989 and then received the Positio dossier in 1993. Theologians approved the cause on 13 June 2000 as did the C.C.S. on 6 February 2001 and it allowed for Pope John Paul II to confirm her heroic virtue and name her as Venerable on 24 April 2001.

The process for a miracle spanned from 1964 until 1978 and the miracle in question involved the cure of Giovanni Luigi Iecle - who suffered from an intestinal condition - on 26 December 1961 in Bosa in Nuoro. This process was validated on 1 July 1994 and received the approval of a medical board on 21 February 2002. Theologians approved it as well on 18 October 2002 as did the C.C.S. on 21 January 2003. John Paul II approved the miracle on 12 April 2003 and later beatified Monti on 9 November 2003 in Saint Peter's Square.

The current postulator for this cause is Giovanni Cazzaniga.