BENAGLIO, GIUSEPPE. - Theologian, vicar general of Bergamo, born there of a noble family on 22 Nov. 1767, died on 18 Jan. 1856. As soon as he was ordained, he entered the circle of eminent Bergamasque priests (Passi, Tomini, Pallazzoli, Mutti), and there conceived numerous works intended 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 young men from irreligion, and the institute of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart for the education of young women. The latter religious Congregation (founded in 1831 with the cooperation of the blessed Teresa Eustochio Verzeri) is today flourishing greatly.
As professor of theology and director of souls, B. effectively opposed the tendencies of Jansenism. From this concern arose the posthumous work Dell'attrezione quasi materia e parte del sacramento della Penitenza, secondo la dottrina del Concilio di Trento (2 vols., Milan 1846), in which he advocates attritionism, in support of which he maintains, with very extensive erudition, that the incipiunt diligere of chapter 6, session VI of the Council of Trent concerns solely extra-sacramental justification. The work, still useful today, earned the praise of Ballerini: «opus plane egregium».