Allamano, Giuseppe

ALLAMANO, GIUSEPPE. - Priest, founder of the Institute of the Consolata for Foreign Missions and of the Missionary Sisters of the Consolata, b. at Castelnuovo d'Asti (Don Bosco) on 21 January 1851, d. at Turin on 16 February 1926. A nephew of St. Joseph Cafasso, he had the good fortune to complete his secondary studies under the guidance of St. John Bosco. Ordained a priest at Turin on 20 September 1873, in 1880 he was appointed rector of the sanctuary of the Consolata, which he radically transformed, making it one of the liveliest Italian centers of Marian piety. In 1882 he brought the Ecclesiastical Boarding School back to new life, of which he always remained rector. In 1883 he became a canon of the metropolitan church of Turin. Among the many works of charity that he promoted or supported, the principal one, in which he had as a valuable collaborator Canon Giacomo Camisassa, another distinguished figure of priest and apostle, remains the founding of the Institute for Foreign Missions (v. ISTITUTO MISSIONI DELLA CONSOLATA), carried out, after years of difficulties and opposition, in 1901; this was followed, in 1910, by the founding of the Missionary Sisters of the Consolata; institutes that he directed until his death. He died in the reputation of sanctity, after having promoted and successfully brought to completion the cause of beatification of his uncle. The process for his beatification is under way at the archiepiscopal curia of Turin.