LUZZAGO, ALESSANDRO. - A Brescia nobleman, one of the most significant figures of the Catholic Reform in Brescia; born in October 1551, died in Milan on 7 May 1602, assisted by Cardinal F. Borromeo.
Having obtained a degree in theology at Padua (1586), he wished to enter the Jesuits, who had been his teachers, but, also in order to please his father, he became neither a religious nor a priest, but rather a lay apostle, and devoted all his time to reviving Brescia’s pious institutions and creating new ones.
His principal foundations were: the Schools of Christian Doctrine; the Company of S. Maria della misericordia dei prigionieri, modelled on the statutes of the Roman Confraternity of S. Giovanni Decollato; the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, to organize the moral forces of the city’s most zealous gentlemen; and the Casa di Dio for beggars. He infused new life into the pious institution of Advocates for the Causes of the Poor, founded by Domenico Bollani. Throughout L.’s apostolic activity, in accordance with the spirit of the Society of Jesus, there is evident a constant subordination of contemplation to action. His cause of beatification was initiated by Fr. Bartolomeo Fornoni; its records are preserved in the antechamber of the sacristy of the church of the Pace in Brescia.
Felice da Mareto