MARCHISIO, CLEMENTE. - Priest, founder of the Figlie di S. Giuseppe, b. at Racconigi (Turin) on 1 March 1833, d. at Rivalba Torinese on 16 Dec. 1903.
Ordained priest in 1856 and having spent two years under the wise guidance of s. G. Cafasso, he was assistant pastor at Canbasso and Vigone, then, from 1860, provost at Rivalba Torinese, where for 43 years he laboured tirelessly for his flock. In order to prevent young women from going to work in Turin, whence they returned less virtuous, he founded a weaving workshop for them in 1871; he subsequently chose from among the best some to direct it; hence arose the new Institute of the Figlie di S. Giuseppe (1877). But, having observed while preaching in various parishes the poverty and unseemliness of the sacred vestments, and the fact that the matter of the Sacrifice was adulterated to the point of rendering it invalid, he assigned the Institute another task: namely, preparing the wine for Mass, the candles, linens, and vestments necessary for worship. The ideal proved so appealing that the Institute soon spread through very many dioceses. The cause for M.’s beatification was introduced in 1944.