Blessed Philipp Rinaldi

Filippo Rinaldi (28 May 1856 – 5 December 1931) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Salesians of Don Bosco; he served as the third Rector Major for the order from 1922 until his death in 1931. He founded the Secular Institute of Don Bosco Volunteers. Rinaldi was close friends since his childhood to Giovanni Bosco and Paolo Albera and it was Bosco who guided Rinaldi who was torn in his adolescence between the farming life and the religious life. The order held him in high esteem from the outset and noted the potential within him as well as seeing the charism of Bosco encompassed in Rinaldi. Rinaldi's beatification was celebrated under Pope John Paul II in 1990. Filippo Rinaldi was born in mid-1856 in Lu Monferrato as the eighth child to the farmers Cristobolo Rinaldi and Antonia Brezza. He knew Giovanni Bosco since 1861. Two brothers of his would later priests much like himself. Rinaldi started his educational studies at Mirabello Monferrato in which the Salesians of Don Bosco oversaw his education; the assistance for him there was Paolo Albera but Rinaldi later returned to his home despite Bosco making an effort to convince him to reconsider his decision. He continued his life as a farmer but received some letters from Bosco and some books from Albera regarding religious vocations and the process of discernment. In 1874 his parents welcomed Bosco who decided to visit Rinaldi but he proved to be most persistent in his decision not to continue his religious studies. Bosco's insistence at least managed to get his parents to convince to return to the school; his mother proved more vocal in this and even some people from the town also attempted to convince him.