Blessed Luigi Tezza

Luigi Tezza (1 November 1841 - 26 September 1923) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Camillians. He established the Daughters of St. Camillus and is known as the Apostle of Lima. He was ordained in 1864 and went on to serve the sick and the poor in Peru where he administered. Tezza's new religious congregation was established with the sole aim of sick relief and followed the example of the Camillian order as a branch of it. On 4 November 2001 he was beatified as confirmation of his popular status as a Peruvian figure and as well as for his reputation for holiness. Luigi Tezza was born on 1 November 1841 in Treviso as the sole child of Augustine Tezza (d. 1850) and Catherine Nedwiedt (d. 1880). After the death of his father in 1850 both he and his mother moved to Verona. At the age of 15 he entered as a postulant in the Camillian order in Verona. His mother later became a nun. Under the guidance of Father Luigi Artini he made his first religious profession on 8 December 1858. He was ordained to the priesthood on 21 May 1864 under the Bishop of Verona Luigi Di Canossa and travelled to Rome as a novice master. Tezza desired to join those in the missions in Africa but this was denied to him. He later spent over three decades in France after being sent there on 10 August 1871 where he became the superior of a small home where he worked to establish other homes and centers for the poor and the ill. Tezza - to that end - also formed a Camillian province in France. Due to the conflict between the state and the church in 1880 he was expelled due to his clerical status and that of being a foreigner. Despite this he returned to France in disguise to continue his work with the sick. In 1889 in Rome he was chosen as both the Vicar and Procurator General of his order where he commenced a project for a female branch of the Camillian order.