LUDOVICO da CASORIA, Venerable. — Francesco, b. at Casoria (Naples) on 11 March 1814, d. at Posillipo on 30 March 1885. He went to Africa to redeem the dead, for whom he opened a college. Of him is the inspired phrase: «L’Africa convertirà l’Africa» [Africa will convert Africa].
In 1859 he founded the Congregation of the Brothers of Charity, known as the Bigi from the color of their habit, to which he added the Elisabetta Bigie Sisters. He created countless works relying solely on the help of Providence. He gathered the best of Neapolitan street urchins, founded a house with an agricultural school on the Deserto di Sorrento, and a home at Posillipo for elderly fishermen and scrofulous children.
In 1871 he opened in Assisi an institute for the blind and deaf-mute; in Rome a boarding school with the church of the Immacolata. In Florence he built a church dedicated to the Sacred Heart, the first in Italy, along with a hospice. He also established an academy, attended by the most learned men of the time and admired even by unbelievers. In 1882, on the occasion of the centenary celebrations of the Poor Man of Assisi, he offered a meal to fifty poor people and erected in Naples, at Posillipo, a monument to St Francis featuring the tertiary figures of Dante, Giotto, and Columbus. The cause of beatification was introduced on 13 March 1907.