MARCHISIO, CLEMENTE. - Priest, founder of the Daughters of St Joseph, 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 St John Bosco, he served as assistant priest at Cambiano and at Vigone, and from 1860 as provost at Rivalba Torinese, where for 43 years he worked tirelessly for his flock. To prevent young girls from going to serve in Turin, from where they returned less virtuous, in 1871 he founded a weaving workshop for them; then, choosing the best among them, he had some direct it; hence the new Institute of the Daughters of St Joseph (1877). But having observed, while preaching in various parishes, the poverty and indecency of sacred vestments and the fact that the matter of the Sacrifice was being adulterated to the point of rendering it invalid, he gave the Institute another task, namely to prepare the wine for Mass, the candles, the linens and the vestments necessary for worship. The ideal was so well received that the Institute soon spread to many dioceses. The cause for the beatification of M. was introduced in 1944.