Our Founders

Blessed Luigi Biraghii

Luigi Biraghi was born in Vignate, near Milan, Italy, on 2 November 1801.
At the age of 12 he entered the Minor Seminary of Castello sopra Lecco and continued his studies for the priesthood at the Major Seminaries of Monza and Milan. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Milan on 28 May 1825. The young Biraghi was then sent to teach at the Seminaries of Castello sopra Lecco, Seveso and Monza until his appointment in 1833 as spiritual director of the Major Seminary of Milan.

In 1855, he was named a doctor of the prestigious Biblioteca Ambrosiana. In 1864, he was appointed Vice-Prefect of the Ambrosiana and in 1873, Domestic Prelate of His Holiness Pius IX. The Pope held Mons. Biraghi in such high esteem that in 1862 he wrote him a personally signed letter asking him to exercise his influence as a mediator and peacekeeper among the Milanese clergy.

Mons. Luigi Biraghi was a very cultured man with a profound inner life and a scholar of patristics and archaeology. His idea of founding the institute of the Sisters of St. Marcellina sprang from his knowledge of and admiration for, Christian antiquity as well as his devotion to St. Ambrose. St. Marcellina was the elder sister of St. Ambrose and St. Satyrus.

In 1836, with the assistance of Mother Marina Videmari (1812-911), Mons. Biraghi founded the Institute popularly known as the "Marcellina Sisters" at Cernusco sul Naviglio. The Institute was concerned with the cultural and moral education of young women of noble birth, but also educated poor girls free of charge. Mons. Biraghi died on 11 August 1879, at the age of 78. He was buried in the family grave in Cernusco sul Naviglio, but in 1951 his remains were translated to the chapel of the Marcellines' Mother House, also in Cernusco.