Martinelli, Giorgio Maria

MARTINELLI, GIORGIO MARIA. - Founder of the Oblates Missionaries of Rho (diocese of Milan), b. at Brusimpiano on 9 May 1655, d. at Rho on 2 Nov. 1727.

An Oblate of Sts. Ambrose and Charles (25 July 1679), he was ordained a priest on 22 Sept. 1680; he taught grammar and rhetoric in the seminaries of Celana and Monza and in the Helvetic College (1679-86); he was rector of the Seminary of Arona (19 July 1692-24 Apr. 1694) with the task of erecting the colossal statue of St. Charles, known as the S. Carlone of Arona, which had already been under construction for 80 years; he was moreover for nineteen years spiritual director of the Major Seminary of Milan (1686-1692, 1694-1707). A man of zeal and of uncommon priestly virtue, he spread the practice of spiritual exercises among the Oblates of Sts. Ambrose and Charles, the secular clergy and religious women, and gave a strong impulse to missions in parishes, especially small and poor ones. To this end he obtained from Archbishop Benedetto Erba Odescalchi permission to establish at Rho a college of Oblate Missionaries (end of 1714, canonically erected on 4 Apr. 1721) of which he was prefect, then provost for life; he established that the missionaries should always perform their work gratuitously. The cause of beatification is in progress.

Among the works published in print the following are noteworthy: the Diozione al Sagro Cuore di Notro Signore Gesù Cristo (Milan 1698, a version from the French of the very well-known work of Fr. G. Croiset) and Le vie dello spirito battute con molti nuovi pensieri, utili e necessari all'adempimento dell'ecclesiastiche obbligazioni (2 vols., Venice 1727).

A. Pietro Frutaz