MARINONI, GIUSEPPE. — First superior of what is today the Pontifical Institute of the SS. Pietro e Paolo and of the SS. Ambrogio e Carlo for Foreign Missions, born in Milan on 11 October 1810, died there on 27 September 1891. Ordained a priest in 1834, after teaching for several years in diocesan seminaries he went to Rome, where he was a disciple of b. PALLOTTA, ANTONIO (v.), then vicar and subsequently parish priest at S. Michele a Ripa. Recalled to the diocese to direct the nascent Institute of Foreign Missions, he was its intelligent and much-loved superior until his death.
In 1864 he founded L'osservatore cattolico, bringing Enrico Massara and Davide Albertario onto its editorial staff. He showed himself a vigorous defender of the papal cause, but free from the passionateness that later distinguished the newspaper; he withdrew from it in 1872, when, together with Giacomo Scurati, he founded Le missioni cattoliche. He never ceased, however, to assist L'osservatore, also by express commission received from Rome.
Deeply esteemed by Pio IX and by the entire Lombard episcopate, which often availed itself of his assistance in drafting collective pastoral letters, he was venerated and heeded by cardinals and bishops. Adviser to Ausonio Franchi during the days of his return to the Church, and to several other wayward priests sent to him by their respective bishops, he was an eminent educator and father of missionaries, as well as a distinguished ecclesiastical writer. He left a copious correspondence, full of learning, wisdom, and balance. His death was mourned as that of a saint.