Marinoni, Giuseppe

MARINONI, GIUSEPPE. - First superior of what is today the Pontifical Institute of Sts. Peter and Paul and of Sts. Ambrose and Charles for Foreign Missions, b. in Milan on 11 Oct. 1810, d. there on 27 Sept. 1891. A priest in 1834, after some years of teaching in the diocesan seminaries he went to Rome, where he was a disciple of the bl. Pallotti (v.), then vicar and later parish priest at S. Michele a Ripa. Recalled to the diocese to direct the nascent Institute of Foreign Missions, he was its superior, intelligent and greatly beloved, until his death.

In 1864 he founded L'osservatore cattolico, calling Enrico Massara and Davide Albertario to its editorship, showing himself a strenuous defender of the papal cause, but averse to the impassioned tone that later distinguished the newspaper; he withdrew from it in 1872, when, with Giacomo Scurati, he founded Le missioni cattoliche; he never ceased, however, from assisting L'osservatore, also by express commission received from Rome.

Most dear to Pius IX and to the whole Lombard episcopate, which often availed itself of him for the drafting of collective pastoral letters, he was venerated and listened to by cardinals and bishops. Adviser of Ausonio Franchi, in the days of his return to the Church, and of several other strayed priests, directed to him by their respective bishops, he was an eminent educator and father of missionaries and a distinguished ecclesiastical writer. He left a copious correspondence, full of doctrine, wisdom and balance. His death was mourned as that of a saint.

Giovanni B. Tragella