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Giuseppe (Joseph) Ottavio Allamano was born on January 21, 1851, in Asti, Sardinia, the fourth of five children to Giuseppe Allamano and Mariana Cafasso. Marianna’s brother, Giuseppe (Joseph) Cafasso, the “Gallow’s Priest,” was canonized in 1947. Young Giuseppe was just three when his father died.
From 1861 to 1865, ages ten to fifteen, young Guiseppe studied at the Oratory that Father John Bosco (now Saint) had founded and lived in the Valdocco neighborhood of Turin. But he left to study for the diocesan priesthood and was ordained a priest on September 20, 1873.
Father Giuseppe’s first assignment was as spiritual director of Turin’s major seminary. In 1876, three years after ordination, Father Guiseppe earned a doctorate in theology, and in 1880, he was appointed rector of the Santuario della Consolata (Sanctuary of the Consolata). Father Giuseppe remained rector of the Sanctuary until his death in 1926.
As a new rector, Father Giuseppe enlisted Count Carlo Ceppi, a famous Italian architect, to help him revitalize the sanctuary, for churches proclaimed “Sanctuaries” by the Catholic Church mean they are places for pilgrims to find spiritual solace and renewal. So, he wanted not only a beautiful place to worship, but a place of comfort.
During his priesthood, there were people who became known as the “Social Saints” in Turin, and though he was not counted among their number, he was greatly influenced by these people who had particular concern for the social problems facing the rural poor. He was especially influenced by his uncle, Saint Joseph Cafasso. And Father Giuseppe supported the social programs for children, youth, homeless, marginalized, and others for whom the Social Saints devoted their lives.
In 1899, Father Giuseppe, a great proponent of Catholic newspapers, founded a monthly periodical called La Consolata.
Father Giuseppe had a strong missionary spirit, so after recovering from a serious illness in 1891, he founded as the Consolata Missionaries (I.M.C.) for priests and laymen on January 29, 1901. The first missionaries went to Kenya in 1902. He also founded the Consolata Missionary Sisters (I.S.M.C.) on January 29, 1910.
In 1912, during a visit with Pope Saint Pius X, he asked the pope to proclaim an annual mission day to stimulate missionary vocations. Although Father Giuseppe’s request was postponed because of the advent of World War I, in 1927, Pope Pius XI instituted World Mission Day, now known as World Mission Sunday and celebrated the second-to-the-last Sunday of October every year.
Father Giuseppe Allamano died on February 16, 1926, in Turin, Italy and was canonized on October 20, 2024, by Pope Francis. Saint Giuseppe Allamano’s feast day is February 16, and he is a patron saint of the Consolata Missionary men and women, and missionaries.
Today, Consolata missionaries serve in over forty nations of Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.
