ORIONE, LUIGI. - Priest, founder of the Little Work of Divine Providence, b. at Pontecurone (Alessandria) on 23 June 1872, d. at San Remo on 12 March 1940. Having entered the Friars Minor of Voghera as a boy and been dismissed due to poor health, he was taken in at the Salesian Oratory of Turin, where he met Don Bosco and witnessed his holy death. At 18 he returned to his diocese: serving as custodian of the cathedral of Tortona, he was able to complete his studies in the seminary, and in 1895 he was ordained a priest.
Still a cleric, he founded the first festal Oratory and laid the foundations of the "Little Work of Divine Providence" (v.), devoting himself entirely to the cause of the Church, of the poor, of the forsaken and of the needy. To this end he instituted the Sons of Divine Providence, the Little Missionary Sisters of Charity, the Hermits of Divine Providence, blind and sighted, and the blind Sacramentine Sisters. In the Calabrian-Sicilian and Marsican earthquakes, he labored heroically for the rescue of orphans. He went twice to Latin America (1921 and 1934), stirring up initiatives of good everywhere. Always comforted by the blessing of the pontiffs, he enjoyed the particular affection of Pius X, who received his perpetual vows and entrusted him with missions of confidence, appointing him, among other things, vicar general of Messina in the years that followed the earthquake. With an final message of love to the Pope, he closed his existence, wholly consecrated to the exercise of charity. He received, in death, triumphal honors.
His body rests in the sanctuary of the Madonna della Guardia of Tortona. The cause of beatification has been begun at the Congregation of Rites.
Bibliography7 works
Giuseppe Zambarbieri