MANZELLA, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. — Vincentian missionary and apostle of Sardinia, born at Sconcio (Cremona) on 21 January 1855, died at Sassari on 23 October 1937. He entered the Congregation of the Mission at Chieri in 1887 and was ordained priest on 25 February 1893.
Sent to Sardinia in 1900, he worked there tirelessly until his death, devoting himself to every work of charity: the formation and assistance of the clergy, the spiritual direction of the Seminary of Sassari, and the giving of spiritual exercises to clerics and priests; the preaching of popular missions, extending even to the *stazzi* of the Nurra and Gallura, the mines and construction sites of the hydroelectric basins, the prisons, colonies and penal baths, while also fostering the establishment of charitable associations. A bold initiative of his was the founding of the Catholic weekly *La libertà* in Sassari (13 March 1910). Among his foundations may be recalled: in Sassari, the Institute of the Child Jesus, for the chronically ill, and for the blind; the female orphanage at Tempio; and the numerous shelters for the poor and asylums that sprang up throughout the island at his instigation.
Assisted by Angela Marongiu (1854–1936), he founded (1927) the Institute of the Sisters of Gethsemane, known as the Manzellian Sisters, with the purpose of training young women for family life and instructing children in places most lacking in religious assistance.
In 1941 diocesan informative processes were begun for the introduction of his cause of beatification.