José Benito Cottolengo (1786–1842)

Biography

He was born in Turin, Italy, where, already a canon, he founded the “Piccola Casa della Divina Providenza” in 1831, which was indeed a very poor little house, but which grew to become one of the most important charitable enterprises of modern times. He cared for those whom no one wanted - the incurably sick, retarded children, deaf-mutes, cripples, epileptics, old people with unsolvable illnesses - regardless of effectiveness and common sense, just because they were children of God. He did it without money and with no other guarantee than prayer. Because the bank of Providence does not fail, the saint used to say, what difference does it make to God to maintain five hundred than five thousand... He refused to be farsighted and to think about tomorrow, he did not want to make any calculations, knowing that God handles bookkeeping better than anyone else; You had to live rigorously from day to day, accepting all the sick, saving nothing, without anticipating anything, since there are no hands safer than those of God nor love greater than his. Before dying, exhausted by the dedication of his life, he sighed: “The donkey cannot take another step.”