Giovanni Antonio Farina was an Italian Catholic bishop known for his compassionate treatment of the poor and for his enlightened views of education; he was sometimes dubbed as the "Bishop of the Poor". He served as the Bishop of Vicenza and later as the Bishop of Treviso; he is also known for ordaining the future Pope Pius X to the priesthood.
Zygmunt Gorazdowski was a Polish Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Sisters of Saint Joseph. Gorazdowski suffered from tuberculosis during his childhood which impeded his studies for the priesthood in what required him to take time off in order to recover before he could be ordained. Once he was ordained he served in various parishes while setting up homes for orphans and single mothers as well as hospices and other establishments for a range of people; he was a prolific writer of catechism and other religious notes for the benefit of his flock.
Maria Franciszka Siedliska, also known by her religious name Maria of Jesus the Good Shepherd, was a Polish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth. In childhood Siedliska was indifferent to her faith but after a local priest had converted her she became aware of a call to the religious life which her parents opposed. However the death of her father in 1870 enabled her to pursue her vocation. In 1873 she decided to found a religious congregation that received the blessing of Pope Pius IX before being established during Advent in 1875. Siedliska expanded her congregation from Rome to her native Poland and elsewhere, including Great Britain, France and the USA where she visited during her extensive travels.
Vincenzo Romano – born Vincenzo Domenico Romano – was an Italian Roman Catholic priest born in Torre del Greco in Naples. Romano was a parish priest of the village of Herculano who was noted for his simplistic and frugal manner of living and for his great care of orphans. But the French invaders in his area in addition to some of the Italian political groups oppressed him and his work. The people of Torre del Greco granted him the nickname "The Worker Priest" due to Romano's tireless work with the poor and for his commitment to the social needs of all people in the Neapolitan region. He was also noted for his efforts in rebuilding much of Naples following the 1794 eruption of Mount Vesuvius in which he himself cleared rubble and organized rebuilding efforts.
Josep Manyanet i Vives, SF was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Sons of the Holy Family and the Missionary Daughters of the Holy Family. He served in a range of capacities as a parish priest before establishing both religious orders in order to spread devotion to the Holy Family to whom he fostered an intense devotion.
Luigi Talamoni was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Merciful Sisters of Saint Gerard. Talamoni also held civic office for a brief period though later resigned due to the rise of Fascism in the area and dedicated his career to proper care for the poor and to the maintenance of civic infrastructure.
Giuseppina Gabriela Bonino, also known by her religious name Giuseppina Gabriella of Jesus, was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Suore della Sacra Famiglia di Savigliano. Bonino dedicated her life to the ill and to orphans and did this in drawing upon her own experience in tending to her ailing father and to orphans in her hometown - all this prior to and after the establishment of her religious congregation.
Maria Domenica Mantovani was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious, and the co-founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family; she established them alongside Giuseppe Nascimbeni. As a nun she received the religious name of Maria of the Immaculate.
Giovanni Battista Piamarta was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and educator. Piamarta was also the founder of the Congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth. Piamarta established his congregation in 1900 in order to promote Christian education across the Italian peninsula. Piamarta also founded the Humble Servants of the Lord.
Giovanni Calabria was an Italian Roman Catholic priest who dedicated his life to the plight of the poor and the ill. He established two congregations, the Poor Servants of Divine Providence and the Poor Sisters Servants of Divine Providence. to take better care of poor people in various Italian cities and later abroad while underpinning the need to promote the message of the gospel to the poor.
Luca Passi was an Italian priest and the founder of the Teaching Sisters of Saint Dorothy. Two brothers of his were priests – following the example of their paternal uncle – and Passi himself moved to Venice in order to dedicate himself to both his preaching and educational missions.
Manuel Míguez González – in religious Faustino of the Incarnation – was a Spanish priest and a professed member from the Piarists as well as the founder of the Daughters of the Divine Shepherdess – better known as the Calasanzian Institute. He gained a rather strong reputation for being a formidable pastor and a man dedicated to both education and science while using his scientific knowledge to concoct natural medicines to aid the ill who came to him for his help. But his religious activism augmented when he saw illiterate women and those who were marginalized and so decided to establish a religious congregation to educate women.
Zefirino Agostini was an Italian Roman Catholic priest that served in his hometown of Verona to perform his pastoral duties. He established two religious congregations in his lifetime being the Pious Union of Sisters Devoted to Saint Angela Merici and the Ursuline Sisters of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate.
Francesco Spinelli was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Sisters Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament. Spinelli became close contemporaries of Geltrude Comensoli and Luigi Maria Palazzolo and had a previous collaboration with Comensoli in which the two established a religious institute in Bergamo before a rift between members caused Spinelli to distance himself from its work and leave.
Ignacy Kłopotowski was a Polish Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto (1920); he founded this congregation with the assistance of the Polish nuncio Achille Ratti - the future Pope Pius XI. Kłopotowski served in Poland as a pastor towards those who were poor and orphaned and is best known for his commitment to the Christian press in which he established a range of Christian publications for the faithful.
Anton Maria Schwartz, born Anton Schwartz, was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Congregation of the Christian Workers of Saint Joseph Calasanz. He entered the novitiate of the Piarists but left due to fear of German suppression so instead became a diocesan priest for the Archdiocese of Vienna. He championed the rights and the welfare of the workers and aimed his order at serving labourers.
Giuseppe Baldo was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and the founder of both the Little Daughters of Saint Joseph (1894) and the Sisters of Charity of Saint Mary (1882). Baldo served as a simple parish priest in the Diocese of Verona and tended to the old and the poor.
Tomasa Ortiz Real was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious who founded the Salesian Sisters of the Sacred Heart and assumed the religious name of "Piedad of the Cross" upon becoming a nun.
Juan Nepomuceno Zegrí Moreno was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Mercedarian Sisters of Charity (1878). Moreno was ordained as a priest in 1855 and was accused of misconduct in 1888 and the Holy See ordered him to leave the congregation as an investigation took place; he was vindicated in 1894.
Louis-Antoine-Rose Ormières Lacase was a French Roman Catholic priest from the Diocese of Carcassonne and the founder of the Sisters of the Guardian Angel - an order dedicated to the care of children and the educational needs of the poor.
