REDOLFI, FORTUNATO, Servant of God. – Barnabite, born at Zanano (Brescia) on 8 Nov. 1777, died at Monza on 8 Apr. 1850.
He was called “the priest of the boys,” for whom, especially for those of the common people, he established numerous oratories, the first of their kind in Italy, at Adro (c. 1815) and other towns in the Brescian and Lombard regions; the principal one being the Oratory of Our Lady of Sorrows at the Carrobiolo in Monza (1822), still flourishing today. In 1919 an apostolic process was opened on his behalf; he is buried in the church of the Carrobiolo at Monza. The Rule, written by him, required the pupils to attend the oratory every Sunday morning for Mass, the explanation of the Gospel, and the singing of the Office of Our Lady; in the afternoon they returned, after the parochial catechetical instruction, for various games and the evening service. The oratory remained open on feast days as well, though attendance was not obligatory. He was a skilled painter and sculptor; he composed little songs and sacred dramas (among which, the only one printed, *Luigi Gonzaga*, 1827, 1891), adapting others from Metastasio for the academies and festivals of his boys; he left in manuscript a poetic version of the books of Isaiah and the Psalms.