He lived between 1831 and 1891 and was born in Italy, and was the seventh child of a family of eight children. At an early age he was left an orphan and was sent to be raised by his uncle, who was also a priest. He himself became a priest when he was 24 years old and opened a school in his home. He became an itinerant missionary in southern Italy. He opened another school to train priests to become confessors after his travels. He founded the Priestly Society of the Catholic Apostolate to support the missions, gaining the papal approval to do so. He then started a new religious order of sisters, the Daughters of Charity of the Most Precious Blood which ministers orphan children. During this time, he was also a parish priest, a confessor to cloistered nuns and spiritual father to a lay group at the Shrine of the Lady of Mount Carmel. At the age of 59, he died of liver disease.
