The 24 April 2017, we celebrate the feast of our founder, St. Benedict Menni, who developed a deep spirituality throughout his life…
…through which he learned to read God’s steps and answer His call, bringing together science and charity.
With these lines, we want to remember him in the form of a tribute since his immense legacy, 136 years after the founding of our Institution, inspires us in the hospitaller mission of our time. “The mission is to continually help, take care of and assist sick people with nurturing behaviour and unalterable tenderness, contributing to the well-being of the ill and solace of those in their care” (Constitutions 1882)
His Origins
Milan (Italy), 11 March 1841. Luis Menni and Luisa Figini celebrate the birth of their fifth son (15 siblings in total). He is baptised the same day in the ‘Santa Maria alla Fontana’ parish church. The newborn was given the name Ángel Hércules.
On 26 June 1849, he received the sacrament of Confirmation. Between 1852 and 1857 he attends a public secondary school called ‘Porta Nuova’, with excellent results. Already with his qualification, at sixteen years old, he had no difficulties finding his first job at a bank.
At the age of sixteen, he left the job he had at the bank, on his own accord, since some of the management procedures went against his upright and well-formed conscience. Shortly afterwards, he takes a spiritual retreat at the Certosa di Pavia, accompanied by a Carthusian brother, from where he leaves already prepared to follow the vocation to which God has called him: to join the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of Saint John of God.
