MANZELLA, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. - Missionary of St. Vincent, apostle of Sardinia, b. at Soncino (Cremona) on 21 Jan. 1855, d. at Sassari on 23 Oct. 1937. Having entered the Congregation of the Mission at Chieri in 1887, he was ordained a priest on 25 Feb. 1893.
Sent to Sardinia in 1900, he labored there indefatigably until his death, devoting himself to every work of charity: the formation and assistance of the clergy, in the spiritual direction of the Seminary of Sassari, and in spiritual exercises for seminarians and priests; the preaching of missions to the people, going as far as the "stazzi" of the Nurra and of Gallura, into the mines and the construction sites of the hydroelectric basins, into the prisons, the colonies and the penal establishments, while at the same time promoting the establishment of charitable associations. A bold initiative of M. was the founding of the Catholic weekly of Sassari La liberté (13 March 1910). Among the foundations are remembered: at Sassari, the Institute of the Child Jesus, of the Forsaken Chronically Ill, of the Blind; the girls' orphanage at Tempio, besides the numerous almshouses and nurseries that arose through his impulse throughout the island.
Aided by Angela Marongiu (1854-1936), he founded (1927) the Institute of the Sisters of Gethsemane, called the Manzellian Sisters, with the purpose of attending to the formation of young women for family life, and to the instruction of children in places most lacking in religious assistance.
In 1941 the diocesan informative processes were begun, for the introduction of the cause of beatification.
Bibliography3 works
Annibale Bugnini