Blessed Giuseppe Benedetto Dusmet

Giuseppe Benedetto Dusmet (15 August 1818 – 4 April 1894) – born Giuseppe Dusmet – was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal who served as the Archbishop of Catania from 1867 until his death. He became professed into the Order of Saint Benedict where he took "Benedetto" as his religious name. He studied under the Benedictines prior to joining them and before serving as a professor in addition to prior and abbot. His elevation to the episcopate saw him distinguish himself in cholera epidemics when he tended to the ill while also remaining a strong advocate for the poor of his archdiocese. He remained a Benedictine and was known to continue to don the Benedictine habit instead of the red cardinal's regalia. His beatification was celebrated on 25 September 1988. Giuseppe Dusmet was born in Palermo in 1818 as the first of six children to the nobles Luigi Dusmet and Maria dei Dragonetti. His house could be traced back to Flanders in Belgium. Dusmet was baptized just hours after his birth in the archdiocesan cathedral as "Giuseppe Maria Giacomo Filippo Lupo Domenico Antonio Rosolino Melchiorre Francesco di Paola Benedetto Gennaro". He would be referred to as Melchiorre at home. His siblings were: His two maternal uncles Vincenzo and Leopoldo Dragonetti were both monks from the Order of Saint Benedict. Dusmet was educated at the San Martino delle Scales convent in Monreale from 1824. It was around this time that the Dusmet's moved to Naples and his father made him return there in 1832 since he feared exposure in the convent would mean his son would harbor the desire to follow an ecclesial path. But Dusmet returned to the school in 1834 when his father realized that he could not change his son's vocation. He would later teach philosophical and theological studies at Benedictine houses. He entered the Benedictines at Montecassino and chose the name "Benedetto" as his middle name after professing his formal vows on 15 August 1840 into the hands of Eugenio Villaraut.