That tiny corner of Piedmont, in northern Italy, which centers around Turin has been blessed during the latter half of the nineteenth century with a surprising number of Saints. Don Bosco, Joseph Cafasso, Maria Mazzarella, Joseph Cottolengo, to name a few. Among the list of candidates arriving at canonization is Bishop Joseph Marello. Joseph was born in Turin on December 26, 1844, the child of Vincenzo Marello and Anna Maria Viale. His parents, who were living in Turin for business reasons, were born natives of San Martino Alfieri, a village nestled in the vine-growing hills near the city of Asti and overlooking the valley of the Tanaro River. Vincenzo Marello was a devout Catholic and was highly respected by his neighbors for his scrupulous honesty in the management of his business. His wife combined a gentle disposition and a deep faith with an outstanding love for the poor. To the townsfolk of San Martino Alfieri she was affectionately known as “the saint.” A striking example of the profound faith of the couple was that they had their infant baptized on the very same day of his birth. To paraphrase a familiar Italian expression, the little Joseph imbibed religion with the milk he drank at his mother’s breast. By the time he was ready to take his first steps to the schoolhouse, he had already learned the basic lessons of life on the knees of a teacher no one could ever hope to replace. Death claimed Joseph’s mother when he was about five years old. Vincenzo Marello thereupon decided to return to the home of his parents in San Martino Alfieri, where he could more suitably provide for the education of his two sons.

It was in 1856 that Vincenzo took Joseph on a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Mercy in Savona as a reward for his high grades during his grammar school studies. It was there that Joseph decided to take the first steps towards the priesthood and begin seminary studies. Upon returning home, Joseph asked his father for permission to enter the Minor Seminary at the beginning of the new term. Joseph’s father was reluctant, at first. He envisioned a successful business career for his talented son, one where he could make a name for the family and provide solace to his father’s declining years. Yet he knew his son’s aspirations too well to cause him the bitter disappointment of a refusal. So he gave his consent and blessing, hoping that he would one day change his mind.

In the summer of 1862, after six years spent in the minor seminary of Asti, Joseph’s vocation was put to a severe test. More elated than ever over his son’s remarkable success in his studies, his father saw the time ripe to persuade him to change his course. He was determined that Joseph now leave the seminary and apply to a business school that would fit him for the career that Vincent had so fondly dreamed of. From a sense of filial obligation Joseph at length yielded to his father’s pleadings. Later he was to attribute this action to a momentary weakness on his part. To a former classmate who asked why he left the seminary, he had one reply:

“I did it to please my father. But I myself am not pleased.”

During the unhappy months he spent pursuing a business course in Turin, the youth’s blameless conduct amid the enticements of a city life prompted a friend of the family to remark to him:

“You’re not made for the world. You’re made to be a priest.”

That is just how Joseph felt about the whole matter. Meanwhile, he fervently prayed for deliverance. It was not long before his prayers were answered in a most unusual manner, as we gather from a sober account of what happened. In December of 1863 he fell seriously ill with Typhoid Fever. At the height of his illness he saw the vision of a cassock before him, which more than ever convinced him that God was calling him to the priesthood. As his condition grew worse, his grief-stricken father began to blame himself for bringing on this misfortune, saying that God was justly punishing him for barring his son’s path to the altar. One day as Vincent kept a silent and anxious watch at his son’s bedside, Joseph in a sobbing voice asked, “Father, would you like me to get better?” Puzzled, the father answered
“Is there any need to ask such a question?” He had never seen the boy so visibly moved. Joseph spoke slowly and deliberately:
“That is just what I mean to ask you. It was my earnest desire to rejoin my classmates in the seminary and resume my studies for the priesthood. You did not want me to, so I obeyed. But the Blessed Mother, who has heard my prayers, knows what is best for me and wants me to go back. She sees the dangers that face me if I continue as I am and, one way or another she is about to deliver me. I am certain that if you allow me to follow my vocation, I shall make a speedy recovery. If not, Our Lady will call me to herself.” The distraught father wept silently at this totally unexpected disclosure. Then, yielding to what he felt was an ultimatum from an authority far higher than his own, he replies with what calmness he could muster:
“If that is the way it must be, you have my consent, provided you get well.” He felt an immediate improvement. A few days later he had completely recovered. Without further delay he made plans to return to the seminary after the Christmas holidays, much to the joy of his former directions. One of them remarked upon hearing news of his decision:

“For Marello, we are not prepared not only to open our doors, but to fling them wide open.”

He was ordained to the priesthood on September 19, 1868 in the Cathedral of Asti. Fired with holy zeal, Father Marello hopefully looked forward to an assignment which could permit him to devote all of his energies and talents to the work of a parish priest. To his surprise, Bishop Savio called him into his office a few days later and announced with a gentle smile that he would remain in residence in Asti to serve as the Bishop’s secretary.

In 1874 he was appointed Chancellor of the Diocese of Asti. He also served for six years as the spiritual director of the major seminary of Asti. But no apostolate did he cherish more dearly than that of charity. In 1881, Father Marello saw his opportunity to devote himself in full measure to his favorite work of mercy. He eagerly accepted a layman’s offer to take over the direction and control of a home for the aged and the handicapped that the latter had founded some years before. He immediately set about providing better living quarters for the newly acquired charges. In partnership with three other priests, he purchased a large property in the city of Asti that had once belonged to a community of cloistered nuns, the Poor Clares. It consisted of a monastery and an adjoining church that had, since 1866, been at the disposal of the Masonic authorities who had driven out the nuns in that year. With characteristic self-forgetfulness, Father Marello contributed three-fourths of the purchase price from his private funds.

Bishop Marello will perhaps be best remembered as the founder of the Oblates of St. Joseph. It was his desire to arouse interest in the vocation to the religious life at the time when the anti-clerical government in Italy was doing all in its power to destroy religious orders by driving monks and nuns out of their monasteries and confiscating their property. As a young man, he conceived the plan of forming a community of men who would follow Christ in the practice of poverty, chastity and obedience, but without taking religious vows. They would be called “Oblates,” that is, men who offer their lives totally to God in prayer and in the spirit and practice of the evangelical counsels. The Brothers of St. Joseph, as the founder called them, were to be disciples in the genuine sense of the word, renouncing all things to follow Jesus. They were to live according to the spirit and the example of St. Joseph. In the words of their founder, their purpose would be “the serve of God in imitation of St. Joseph.” With the blessing and approval of Bishop Savio, Father Marello saw his dream emerge into reality when, on March 14, 1878, he admitted the first four candidates into his “Company of St. Joseph.” For the first six years they resided in a small rented corner of a building known as the Instituto Micherlerio, a vocational school for men in Asti. Here they lived a life of strict poverty and intense prayer under the wise and fatherly guidance of their founder. Because of their simple and austere way of life the neighbors affectionately called them “the little friars.” In 1884 Father Marello provided more ample quarters for his growing community in the recently purchased building of Santa Chiara. This became the motherhouse of the Oblates of St. Joseph, the center from which they were destined to reach out in service to various corners of the globe. At first Father Marello admitted to his religious society only those who did not qualify for the priesthood but who were otherwise suited for the religious life. Soon, however, recognizing what he felt to be the will of God, he opened the doors of the “House of St. Joseph” to candidates for the priesthood as well. United in a common spirit and a common purpose, priests and brothers gradually fulfilled their founder’s dream of a community dedicated to the service of the Church. Availability was to be one of the outstanding traits of the Oblates, the quality of readiness to help diocesan clergy in the undermanned parishes and in other areas of critical need. Encouraged and guided by their zealous founder, the Oblates extended their ministry from the Diocese of Asti to the other dioceses in Italy, with particular emphasis on the Christian Education of the youth in schools and parish centers. Father Marello’s repeated advice to his spiritual sons was “Be Carthusians indoors and Apostles outdoors.” Twenty years after his death the Oblates were to extend their apostolic reach to areas in the Philippine Islands and Latin America. Several years later they were to answer the call of the Church to help in our own country, ministering to Italian immigrants and their children in Pennsylvania and California.

Schooled in humility, Father Marello had always studiously endeavored to shun ecclesiastical rank and honors. He preferred to work in the comparative anonymity that the less conspicuous offices of the priestly state afford. But it was all in vain. Eminent churchmen could not fail to be impressed by the “radiance of this hidden gem,” as one described him. No one was surprised when the news spread through the City of Asti in November of 1888 that Pope Leo XIII had appointed the Director of the Ospizio Santa Chiara, Bishop of the Diocese of Acqui. It was during six brief years as a shepherd of his diocese that Bishop Marello shone in all greatness as a man of action and as a saint. He was a tireless worker in spite of the continual ill health that brought him to an untimely end. Driven by an intence love of God and an unquenchable thirst for saving souls, he literally wore himself out in the relentless rhythm of his pastoral ministry. With good reason a fellow bishop remarked on receiving the news of his death:

“He was a martyr of charity.”

In May of 1895, Bishop Marello was invited to Savona to preside at the celebration of the third centennial of the death of St. Philip Neri. Obliging as always, he accepted the invitation. He especially welcomed the opportunity to revisit the Shrine of Our Lady of Mercy, which he had not seen since the pilgrimage he had made with his father forty years before. Fearing for the precarious state of his health, the members of his household tried to dissuade him from making the trip. To all their pleas he calmly replied:

“Well then, I shall go to Savona, celebrate the festivities of St. Philip Neri, and then die.” On Sunday, May 26, Feast of St. Philip Neri, Bishop Marello celebrated the Pontifical Mass with considerable difficulty and, in spite of his unusual state of fatigue, presided at the other scheduled functions. The following morning, his face drawn and pale, his whole body still exhausted from the preceding day’s strenuous activities, he was driven by coach to his beloved shrine. Before the image of Our Lady of Mercy he offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. A few hours later he became suddenly ill. It was as though Our Lady had purposely arranged that Joseph Marello, who had here dedicated himself to God through her at the dawn of his youth, should return to her shrine to rededicate himself to God at life’s end. He died in the Bishop of Savona’s residence, as serenely as he had lived, on May 30, 1895.

On May 28, 1948, his cause for beautification was officially introduced in Rome. Thirty years later, on January 17, 1978, the commission of cardinals appointed to pronounce judgement in his case unanimously agreed that he had practiced the Christian Virtues in a heroic degree. On June 12, 1978, Pope Paul VI further advanced the cause for sainthood of Bishop Marello by signing a decree on the heroic virtues of Joseph Marello and granting him the title “Venerable.” A young seminarian of the Oblates of St. Joseph was struggling for his life with an incurable case of tubercular meningitis in Armeno, Italy during World War II. Humanly speaking, there was no hope. The community turned to prayer, asking our Founder, Joseph Marello, to intercede on Br. Aldo’s behalf. Suddenly, when it seemed that Br. Aldo was at the end, he recovered completely, without a trace of infection. Br. Aldo went on to be ordained and served throughout his life in various Oblate communities in Italy. The miracle was accepted and proclaimed as such by the decision of our Holy Father which led to Joseph Marello’s proclamation as “Blessed” during a solemn ceremony in Asti on September 26, 1993 by Pope John Paul II.

In 1998, Blessed Joseph Marello’s confirming miracle came in a village in the Andes of Peru where two small children were dying of acute bronchial pneumonia. The villagers gathered in their chapel, dedicated to the Blessed Joseph Marello, to pray for his intercession. Their mother had a dream of Marello assuring her of the healing for her children. The nexy day the children spontaneously lost all symptoms of their illness. The Holy Father recognized this as a true miracle and proceeded to the canonization of Joseph Marello in Rome on November 25, 2001.