LEONORI, ARISTIDE. - Engineer and architect, b. in Roma on 28 July 1856, d. there on 30 July 1928. Having graduated from the University of Roma, he began an activity prodigious in the scale and number of works carried out in Roma and abroad, especially in the construction of religious buildings, thus deserving the title of “inspired builder of the house of God.”
In 1875 he founded the Circolo della Immacolata Concezione, which he brought to great flourishing, and in 1885 the Ospizio di S. Filippo for poor and abandoned children, which absorbed a large part of his activity and earnings. The Institute came to an end because of anticlerical intrigues. The grave accusations brought against L. fell away because they were unfounded, and he, who had borne the misfortune with a strong spirit, was acquitted of every charge and fully rehabilitated.
An untiring apostle of catechetical instruction and of the work of First Communions, a Franciscan tertiary, he was called the “holy engineer.” The cause for his beatification is under way before the S. Congr. of Rites.