St. Benedetto Menni

Saint Benedetto Menni was born on March 11, 1841 in Milan, Italy as Angelo Ercole Menni Figini. He was 5th of 15 children to Luigi and Luisa. He was a brother in the Order of Saint John of God Hospitaler. He studied philosophy and theology at the seminary of Lodi and then the Gregorian Pontifical University in Rome. He was ordained in 1866 and in 1867, by order of Pope Pius IX he began the restoration of the Saint John of God Order in Spain and Portugal. On May 31, 1881 he founded the Congregation of Hospitaller Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He cared for the elderly, abandoned children, polio victims, and mentally ill and made this his life's work. He died in 1914 in Dinan, France of natural cases. His relics are at the Motherhouse of the Congregation of Hospitaller Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Ciempozuelos, Spain. He was canonized by Pope John Paul II on November 21, 1999.