St. Giuseppe Cottolengo

Who they were

Giuseppe Cottolengo was an unremarkable Turin canon until 1827, when a sick and pregnant Frenchwoman was refused by hospital after hospital, for the wrong category and the wrong papers, and died while he was anointing her. He did not write a letter about it.

His answer was the Piccola Casa della Divina Provvidenza, the Little House of Divine Providence, which grew into a city inside a city serving thousands of people every other institution declined: people with profound disabilities, with epilepsy, deaf people, the abandoned. He organized them into what he insisted on calling families, with names, rather than wards with numbers. His governing policy was both the scandal and the sermon. No endowment, no fundraising apparatus, and famously no ledgers: the House lived on providence day by day, and he is documented giving away the evening's surplus so that tomorrow would have to come from God. It always did, and the Little House still serves Turin. He died worn out in 1842 and was canonized in 1934.

Why people turn to St. Giuseppe Cottolengo

Families and caregivers of people with profound disabilities, with St. Margaret of Castello and St. Vitus, and everyone working in group homes and special needs ministry. And anyone whose budget requires a miracle, though the no ledgers policy is his and not advice.

How to ask their intercession

For tomorrow's provision, tonight, which was his exact rhythm. And for a caregiver by name, for the grace of seeing a family where the paperwork sees a case.