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Giustino (Justin) Russolillo was born in Pianura, Naples, Italy on January 18, 1891, third of ten children. His father, Luigi Russolillo, was a bricklayer, and his mother, Giuseppina Simpatia, was a seamstress in addition to being a homemaker. Guistino was baptized the day after his birth due to a heavy snowstorm that came to the area.
His name was recorded in public records as Giustino Pietro Orazio, but in the parish, it was just Giustino.
His family was very poor, and the poverty made a lasting impression on young Giustino. In fact, the effects of poverty on young men’s ability to enter seminarians would eventually lead him to found religious communities to combat the effects of poverty on future vocations to both the priesthood and to the religious life.
As a child, Giustino’s paternal aunts gave him private lessons, and a priest named Orazio Guillaro taught him Latin.
Armed with this education foundation, Giustino entered the seminary in Pozzuoli. As a seminarian, in addition to his studies, he taught catechism and had a special passion for guiding young men who showed signs of a vocation to the priesthood. As a result of this activity, he learned that frequently, the thing that kept some youth from entering the seminary was their family’s poverty.
Giustino was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Pozzuoli on September 20, 1913. As a young priest, he vowed to one day found a religious order devoted to helping young men become priests. In September of 1920, he was made the parish priest (pastor) of San Giorgio’s Church in Pianura. One month later, on October 18, 1920, he founded the Society of Divine Vocations (SDV) – Vocationist Fathers, and on October 2, 1921, he founded the Vocationist Sisters.
Father Giustino’s sister Giovana joined the Vocationist Sisters and became the first Superior General, and his brother Ciro became a Vocationist priest. His brother Michael, a physician, assisted Giustino in the last month of Giustino’s life.
In 1950, three Vocationist priests were sent to Brazil to establish the order there.
In addition to the orders of priests and religious sisters, Father Giustino also founded the Secular Institute of the Apostles of Universal Salvation, a group of lay persons devoted to the cause of fostering vocations.
Father Giustino died on August 2, 1955, in Pianura after celebrating the Sacrament of the Sick. Pope Francis canonized Giustino on May 15, 2022. Saint Giustino Russolillo’s feast day is August 2. He is a patron saint of the Vocationist Fathers, Vocationist Sisters, and the Apostles of Universal Salvation.
Today, the orders Saint Giustino founded are scattered throughout the world.
