Giulio Facibeni

Giulio Facibeni was born in 1884 in Galeata, in the Romagna Apennines of the then Kingdom of Italy. He entered the seminary of the Archdiocese of Florence and was ordained a priest in 1907. In the years before the First World War he served in ordinary parish ministry. During the war he served as a military chaplain on the Italian front. The fighting in the Alpine sector, and the soldiers’ devotion to the Madonna del Grappa, left a lasting mark on him. After the armistice he returned to Florence. Assigned in connection with the military cemetery at Trespiano, he met widows and children of the fallen and began to take personal responsibility for war orphans and other destitute boys and girls.

In the early 1920s Facibeni gathered these children and sought to give them shelter, food, schooling, and Christian formation. In 1923 he formally established the Opera della Divina Provvidenza Madonnina del Grappa, placing the work under Divine Providence and under the Madonna del Grappa, whose small image had been venerated by troops on Monte Grappa. The Opera opened houses in Florence and later elsewhere in Tuscany. Facibeni remained a diocesan priest of Florence rather than a member of a religious order; he directed the institution with the help of collaborators and benefactors and with the support of the local church, including Archbishop Elia Dalla Costa in later years. The work endured the economic strain of the interwar period and the hardships of the Second World War in occupied and bombed Florence.

Known in the city as Don Giulio, Facibeni was remembered for a simple manner of life, trust in Providence, devotion to the Eucharist, and close personal attention to the children in the houses of the Opera. He continued to govern the Madonnina del Grappa until his death. He died in Florence in 1958 and was buried in the church of the Madonnina del Grappa associated with the Opera.

A reputation for holiness led the Archdiocese of Florence to open a cause for beatification. After the diocesan inquiry and the Roman examination of his life and writings, Pope Francis recognized his heroic virtues in 2015, granting him the title of Venerable. He has not been beatified or canonized and has no universal feast day or official patronages. His memory is kept above all by the Opera della Divina Provvidenza Madonnina del Grappa, which continued its charitable and educational work after his death.