REDOLFI, FORTUNATO, servant of God. - Barnabite, b. at Zanano (Brescia) on 8 Nov. 1777, d. 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 in other towns of the Bresciano and Lombardy: foremost among them all was the oratory of the Addolorata at the Carrobiolo of Monza (1822), still flourishing today. In 1919 his apostolic process was opened; he is buried in the church of the Carrobiolo at Monza. The Rule written by R. obliged the pupils to come to the oratory every Sunday morning for Mass, the explanation of the Gospel, and the chanting of the Office of Our Lady; they returned in the afternoon, after parish catechetical instruction, for a great variety of games and the evening service. The oratory also remained open on weekdays, but attendance was not compulsory. He was a skilled painter and sculptor; he composed little songs and sacred dramas (among them, the only one published, Luigi Gonzaga, 1827, 1891), adapting others from Metastasio, for the academies and celebrations of his boys; he left in manuscript a poetic version of the books of Isaiah and of the Psalms.
Virginio M. Colciago