Blessed Aloisius Variara

Luigi Variara (15 January 1875 – 1 February 1923) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Salesians of Don Bosco. He served for most of his life as part of the missions in Colombia where he worked with lepers and the children of outcast lepers. He was ordained as a priest while serving there and made it his mission to provide both relief and consolation. He established his own religious congregation - the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary - with the intention of allowing lepers and the children of lepers the chance to enter the religious life. Pope John Paul II beatified Variara on 14 April 2002. Luigi Variara was born in 1875 in Asti to Pietro Variara and Livia Bussa. Variara entered a Salesian Oratory in Turin at the age of 12 for studies. His father heard John Bosco preach in 1856 and took Variara to Valdocco to complete his studies; Variara met Bosco for a brief period in 1887 before Bosco died in 1888 and the encounter with Bosco left a deep imprint upon Variara. When the two met, Bosco gazed into Variara which the latter took as a confirmation of his future Salesian vocation, considering Bosco's gaze as the approval for such a decision. After Variara finished high school he asked permission to become a Salesian. Variara joined the Salesians of Don Bosco on 17 August 1891 and commenced his period of novitiate. Variara underwent philosophical studies at Valsalice where he met the Andrew Beltrami who died not long after; Variara was inspired with Beltrami's docile attitude to his suffering. He made his solemn profession of his religious vows in the hands of Bosco's successor Michael Rua. In 1894 the priest Michele Unia came to look for a cleric to take with him to Colombia to assist at the Salesian missions for the lepers. Out of the 188 candidates Unia was most impressed with Variara and the two embarked and arrived in Colombia in Agua de Dios on 6 August 1894.