MARTINELLI, GIORGIO MARIA. — Founder of the Missionary Oblates of Rho (diocese of Milan), born in Brusimpiano on 9 May 1655, died in Rho on 2 November 1727.
An Oblate of SS. Ambrogio e Carlo (25 July 1679), he was ordained a priest on 22 September 1680; he taught grammar and rhetoric in the seminaries of Celana and Monza and at the Collegio Elvetico (1679–86); he was rector of the Seminary of Arona (19 July 1692–24 April 1694), charged with erecting the colossal statue of S. Carlo, known as the S. Carlone of Arona, which had already been under construction for eighty years; for nineteen years he was also spiritual director of the Major Seminary of Milan (1686–1692, 1694–1707). A man of uncommon zeal and priestly virtues, he spread the practice of spiritual exercises among the Oblates of SS. Ambrogio e Carlo, the secular clergy, and religious women, and gave strong impetus to missions in the parishes, especially the small and poor ones. For this purpose he obtained from the archbishop Benedetto Erba Odescalchi permission to establish in Rho a college of Missionary Oblates (end
Among the works published in print, the following are noteworthy: Diozione al Sagro Cuore di Notro Signore Gesù Cristo (Milan 1698, translated from the French of the well-known work by 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).