JOSEPH BENEDICT COTTOLENGO, Saint. - Born at Bra in 1786, the first of twelve siblings. From childhood he revealed a mysterious predilection for the sick. He took the ecclesiastical habit in 1802, studied at the Seminary of Asti, and in 1811 was ordained a priest in Turin. At first he devoted himself to the care of souls among country people; but, desirous of greater sacred learning, he resumed theological studies in Turin, where in 1816 he received his degree, and in 1818 he was appointed canon of the church of Corpus Domini. Resolved to imitate St. Vincent de Paul, in 1827 he began to devote himself to the abandoned, the wanderers, the homeless and in particular the sick deprived of assistance. Today (1950), the four beds that in Jan. 1828 gave rise to the work, which he entitled the Little House of Divine Providence, have increased to thousands.
With the help of the widow Marianna Nasi he established the Daughters of St. Vincent - called Cottolenghine - for the care of the sick, including in their own homes. In 1832, after a brief interruption caused by hostile intrigues, the Little House reopened in a locality called Valdocco where, within a decade, it developed rapidly both through the growth of the wards destined for the feeble-minded, the epileptics, the deaf-mutes, the foundlings, girls in moral danger, rachitic children, and reformed women; and through the multiplication of the internal religious families of active and contemplative life, with which the Saint endowed his institution.
In fact, besides the Daughters of St. Vincent or Vincentians, he subsequently established in the Little House the communities of the Ursulines, of the Daughters of the Madonna, of the Suffrage, of the Daughters of Piety, called Discalced Carmelites, of the Taidine and of the Daughters of the Divine Shepherdess, to each of which he assigned a particular rule and a special purpose to be attained. Alongside the female religious families of action and contemplation, which increased after his death, the Saint also established the male communities of the Brothers of St. Vincent and of the Priests of the Most Holy Trinity, as well as the youth section of the Tommasini or aspirants to the priesthood, both for his works and for the needs of the dioceses. As the foundation of these varied undertakings the C. placed the most unlimited trust in the help of Providence, obtained solely through prayer and without any request to the generosity of the good. Therefore he exhorted people to ignore the number of those sheltered, so as "not to wrong Providence" which does not forget the destitute; for it was his favorite maxim that "to those who trust extraordinarily, God provides extraordinarily." For the same reason the official and continuous prayer that, at the saint's desire, resounds in the Little House is: Deo gratias! with which all and unceasingly give thanks to the provident goodness of God. The unfortunate gathered in the Little House rose to several thousands already in the Saint's time. He died at Chieri in 1842; he was beatified by Benedict XV in 1917, and canonized by Pius XI in 1934. Feast on April 29.
Here are the most recent statistics:
At the outpatient clinics of the C.'s hospital an average of 200 consultations are held daily. The clinics are of general medicine and general surgery. In addition, the radiology and physical therapy department and the bacteriological laboratory are in operation. The doctors who currently give their service free of charge to the sick number 57, of whom the eldest began his service in 1891. By ministerial decree dated June 10, 1936, the establishment of the boarding school for religious nurses was approved. From 1938 to 1949, 325 graduates completed their training: at present the school, in all its courses, has 84 students, all religious. The school is entirely maintained by the Little House of Divine Providence. The capacity of the hospital is 1,818 beds. The number of those sheltered of both sexes, invalids, the mentally deficient, deaf-mutes, epileptics, orphans, etc., including the sick, is 3,650. The total of the Cottolenghine sisters, assigned to the assistance of the sick, is 2,607; of these 590 in the Mother House (Cottolengo - Turin), 392 in the 40 branch houses and 1,625 scattered throughout Italy (abroad only one house at Locarno) under the dependence of local administrations. In the Turin hospital religious nurses also serve, in number 50, distributed among the various male wards. The Cottolenghine Sisters who serve in nurseries, orphanages, and schools number 1,740. - See plate LIX.
Bibliography7 works
Luigi Castano