Boccardo, Giovanni Maria, Bl.

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BOCCARDO, GIOVANNI MARIA, BL.

Diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Poor Daughters of Saint Cajetan; b. Testona di Moncalieri (near Turin), Italy, Nov. 20, 1848; d. Pancalieri, Italy, Dec. 30, 1913. Giovanni Boccardo studied at the diocesan seminary of Turin and was ordained (1871). For the next eleven years he provided spiritual direction to seminarians in Chieri and Turin. His first parochial appointment was to Pancalieri in 1882, and he remained there until his death. Although he enjoyed the seminary, he viewed his parochial assignment as an opportunity for evangelization. When cholera struck the village (1884), he personally tended the sick. Afterwards he established the Hospice of Charity to care for those left abandoned or homeless by the epidemic, including orphans and the poor elderly. He founded the Poor Daughters of St. Cajetan to continue the work of the hospice. Within a few years the congregation spread throughout Italy. He was beatified in Milan, by John Paul II, May 24, 1998.

Bibliography: g. costa, Ma chi è stato Giovanni M. Boccardo? (Pinerolo 1976).

[k. i. rabenstein]