CUSMANO, GIACOMO. – Priest, founder of the pious “Opera del boccone del povero,” b. in Palermo on 15 March 1834, d. there on 14 March 1888. He was a physician when, in 1859, he took ecclesiastical garb; he was ordained in December 1860. After seeing a family set aside a morsel for a poor person at every meal, he too began collecting what was superfluous and distributing it to the needy, founding for this purpose the association of the “Boccone del povero,” canonically established in 1868. After creating various pious institutions in Palermo and Sicily, in 1880 he founded the Serve dei poveri (v. BOCCONE del POVERO) and subsequently the Servi dei poveri, laymen, and, in 1887, the Missionari servi dei poveri to direct the two families.
BIBL.: F. P. Filippello, Notizie sulla vita e le virtù del p. G. C. e documenti su la storia del «Boccone del povero», I, Palermo 1922–24; F. Capillo, Il servo dei poveri, there 1938.