GUALA, LUIGI MARIA FORTUNATO. - Turin priest and moral theologian, born in Torino on 14 October 1775 (S. Agostino) to the lawyer Giovanni Giuseppe and Scolastica Gastinelli, died there on 6 December 1848. Introduced to works of apostolate by the Servant of God Pio Brunone Lanteri, whose faithful collaborator he became. Ordained priest on 16 February 1799, a collegiate theologian of the University, he was rector of the Congregation of Artists, established in the church of S. Francesco (1808), and director of one of the “Conferences on Morals” (16 December 1814). The chief merit of this humble priest, of whom few biographical details remain, was that of giving a new direction to the formation of subalpine priests, both through the foundation, in 1817, Convitto ecclesiastico (v.), and through the practice of spiritual exercises according to the Ignatian method (held chiefly, also for laymen, at the sanctuary of S. Ignazio at Lanzo), as well as through the dissemination of the ascetic works of St. Alfonso and of his moral doctrine.
A man of learning and prudence, he was the counsellor of the best-known figures in the subalpine religious and political world of his time, and the beneficent friend of the poor, the sick, prisoners, and craftsmen. His most illustrious disciples were St. Giuseppe Cafasso and St. Giovanni Bosco.
A. Pietro Frutaz