MONTI, LUIGI MARIA. — Founder of the Brothers Hospitallers of the Immaculate Conception, b. at Bovisio (Milan) on 24 July 1825, d. at Saronno on 1 Oct. 1900.
Associated with the idea of the Cremonese C. Pazzini to found a religious institute of laymen for the care of the sick, they together established its directives and began to implement them at the Hospital of S. Spirito in Rome (1857). But difficulties and contradictions arose that forced Pazzini to withdraw (1858) and placed M. in a difficult situation due to external interference, from which he emerged only through the intervention of Pius IX (1887), who recalled him to direct the Hospital. He then wrote new constitutions, extended his work to other hospitals, and also took up the education of orphans, founding orphanages at Saronno and Cantù. Changing times compelled him to leave S. Spirito in 1889. The Institute, after receiving a decree of praise (1862), obtained definitive approval in 1865.