Saint of the day June 7, 2025

Antonio (Anthony) Maria Gianelli was born on April 12, 1789 – on Easter Sunday – to Giacomo and Maria Gianelli in Cerreto, Italy. Anthony had five brothers who all grew up in a poor, pious family in a small farming village. His mother taught catechism, and his father was known as a generous peace-maker in the town.

Anthony was such a promising student that the owner of his family farm, Mrs. Nicoletta Assereto Rebisso, paid for his seminary education. He commenced those studies in November 1807 in Genoa where he began his studies in dogmatics and liturgical practice and earned his doctorate.

Anthony was made a subdeacon in September 1811. He was granted the rather unusual privilege of being allowed to preach while still a subdeacon due to his exceptional eloquence being a well-noted fact. At the age of 23, Anthony was ordained to the priesthood in 1812 in Genoa, Italy. Anthony had to receive special dispensation since he was not at the canonical age required for ordination.

Anthony celebrated his first Mass in Cerreta. He served as a parish priest in Mantua after he was ordained. Later in 1812, Anthony taught at Carcare in Savona, Italy. In February 1813, Anthony was made the vice-parish priest of the San Matteo church in Genoa.

From September 1815 until 1817, Anthony served as a professor at the college of the Padri Scolopi in Carcare before becoming a professor of rhetoric in November 1816 in Genoa. He remained there until 1822.

In June 1826, Anthony was made the archpriest of the church of Saint John the Baptist in Chiavari, Genoa, Italy. This position he held until 1837. From November 1826 in Chiavari, Anthony taught theological subjects as well as Latin and Greek.

Anthony was the founder of the Missionaries of Saint Alphonsus in 1827 for men and that order lasted from that point to 1856. He also was the founder of the Oblates of Saint Alphonsus lasted from its founding in 1828 until 1848 when it had to be dissolved. In 1829 being very sensitive to the needs of people and inflamed with charity, Anthony founded his third order, Figlie di Nostra Signora del Giardino (the Sisters of Our Lady of the Garden), a women‘s teaching order that also worked with the sick, and which continues its work today in Europe, the United States, and Asia.

In 1837, Pope Gregory XVI appointed Anthony as the Bishop of Bobbio, Italy. In October of 1838, Anthony founded the “Oblates of St. Alfonso Liguori” with the precise scope of running and teaching in the Seminaries. He organized the Society of Saint Raphael and Society of Saint Dorothea to instruct the faithful in his diocese. Anthony also restored devotion to Saint Columbanus in his diocese.

Convinced that renewal must come from within, Anthony planned to reform the members of the episcopacy. He insisted on daily Mass, meditation, frequency of the Sacraments, and participation in an annual retreat that he prepared and preached. Anthony guided the Sisters personally, constantly instructed the seminarians, preached missions, visited all of his parishes three times, conducted two synods and performed countless works of charity for the poor.

His boundless energy, however, started to deteriorate. At the end of April 1845, Anthony suffered an acute attack of gastric fever, which was wrongly diagnosed and treated. His lungs became seriously ill. By the spring of 1846, he was so weak that he could no longer celebrate Mass. His doctors advised him to move to a more agreeable climate. Anthony went to Piacenza, Italy where his health worsened.

On June 7, 1846, Anthony died in Piacenza, Italy away from his Diocese of Bobbio. He was beatified on April 19, 1925 by Pope Pius XI and canonized on October 21, 1951 by Pope Pius XII.