Luigi Scrosoppi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Udine, Italian Republic
Udine, Kingdom of Italy
Luigi Scrosoppi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 4 August 1804 Udine, Italian Republic |
| Died | 3 April 1884 (aged 79) Udine, Kingdom of Italy |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 4 October 1981, Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II |
| Canonized | 10 June 2001, Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II |
| Feast | 3 April |
| Attributes | |
| Patronage |
|
Luigi Scrosoppi (4 August 1804 – 3 April 1884) was an Italian priest of the Catholic Church who founded the Sisters of Providence of Saint Cajetan of Thiene. He was canonized in 2001.[1][2]
Luigi Scrosoppi the last of three brothers born to Domenico Scrosoppi, a jeweller from Udine, and Antonia Lazzarini. His brother Carlo was ordained to the priesthood when Luigi was six and his other brother Gio.
As a teenager, he felt a call to the priesthood and studied before he was ordained to the diaconate in 1826. He was ordained to the priesthood on 31 March 1827 and celebrated his first Mass with his brothers. He helped to manage a children's center that his brother Carlo ran and he was an assistant there in 1829. Later joined the Third Order of Franciscans. As head of the “union of the heart of Jesus Christ,” he devoted himself to the construction of an orphanage and supported his brother Carlo, who also was a priest.[1]
He gave himself tirelessly to fundraising and was soon running an organization that accommodated 100 boarders and 230-day pupils in a building which became known as the House of the Destitute. One of the pupils there was Marian seeres Terezija Dush. Scrosoppi established the Sisters of Providence of Saint Cajetan of Thiene and it was to receive the official approval of Pope Pius IX on 22 September 1871. Luigi joined the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri in 1846 and was elected as its provost on 9 November 1856. On 7 March 1857, he opened a school and home for deaf-mute girls, only surviving for fifteen years.
He died on 3 April 1884 after a long illness.[1]
Patron Saint of footballers
On 22 August 2010, Scrosoppi was appointed patron saint of footballers by bishop Alois Schwarz at a church service in the Austrian parish of Pörtschach at Wörthersee in coordination with the Roman authorities and Andrea Bruno Mazzocato, the archbishop of Udine.
A patron saint for footballers did not previously exist, thus the idea of appointing Luigi Scrosoppi was initiated by the "Wörthersee Zukunftsinitiative" from football fan Manfred Pesek. Schwarz, the Bishop of Gurk in Klagenfurt, supported the proposal in the appropriate Vatican section "Church and Sport" largely because soccer for youth is of great importance and meaning. Scrosoppi had to be distinguished in a special way to the youth. He represents values that are developed through sport, such as fairness, perseverance, diligence, and determination. Other supporters of the initiative were Nikolaus Knöpffler, Chair of the Department of Applied Ethics and Director of the "Ethikzentrum" at the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, Walter Walzl, Florian Becker, Robert Hofferer and Stefan Gottschling, who helped make the realisation of this initiative possible. The bishop of Udine, the home Diocese of Scrosoppi, was also involved in the approval and preparation of this project.
A Canadian soccer club called Scrosoppi FC is named in honour of him.[3]
