BENAGLIO, GIUSEPPE. - Theologian, vicar general of Bergamo, born there into a noble family on 22 November 1767 and died there on 18 January 1836. Soon after his ordination he entered the circle of eminent Bergamasque priests (Passi, Tomini, Pallazzoli, Mutti) and within it matured many works designed to stem the currents of the Voltairian age: the priests of the Apostolic College (a kind of diocesan Oblates for missions to the people), the Evening Schools of Charity to preserve male youth from irreligion, and the Institute of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart for the formation of young women. This last religious congregation (founded in 1831 with the cooperation of the Blessed Teresa Eustochio Verzeri) is today most flourishing.
As professor of theology and spiritual director B. effectively opposed the tendencies of Jansenism. From this concern arose the posthumous work Dell’attrizione quasi materia e parte del sacramento della Penitenza, secondo la dottrina del Concilio di Trento (2 vols., Milan 1846), in which he champions attritionism, supporting it with vast erudition by arguing that the opening words of chapter 6, session 6 of the Council of Trent refer solely to justification outside the sacrament. The work, still useful today, earned the praise of Ballerini: “opus plane egregium.”