20th century
Feast: March 12
A twelve-year-old street kid from Pontecurone who grew up to found three religious congregations and built institutions across four continents — all while insisting, 'Do not wait for someone else. You are the one.'
Luigi Orione's childhood was hard. His father was a road worker, money was scarce, and Luigi entered Don Bosco's oratory in Turin at thirteen, sleeping on the floor with hundreds of other boys. He was expelled from the Franciscan minor seminary for health reasons, studied under Don Bosco briefly, and then entered the diocesan seminary. While still a seminarian, he opened an oratory for poor boys in Tortona — a room in the back of a bishop's garden — and things grew from there with a speed that astonished everyone. He founded the Sons of Divine Providence, the Little Missionary Sisters of Charity, and a contemplative community. He built orphanages, schools, agricultural colonies, and homes for the disabled across Italy, South America, and Eastern Europe. He moved constantly, wrote thousands of letters, and had an energy that exhausted everyone around him. He was not always easy — he was impatient, demanding, and sometimes disorganized in his haste to do more. After the Messina earthquake of 1908, he went immediately to the ruins and spent months pulling survivors from the rubble and caring for orphans. He died on March 12, 1940, at sixty-seven, repeating 'Jesus, Jesus.' The organizations he built continue to serve the poorest and most disabled populations in over thirty countries.