Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, CS (8 July 1839 – 1 June 1905) was an Italian Catholic missionary who served as Bishop of Piacenza from 1876 until his death.

[1] Scalabrini's rise to the rank of bishop came at a rapid pace due to a series of lectures he gave on the First Vatican Council in 1872 and his staunch dedication to catechism, which led Pope Pius IX to dub him the "Apostle of the Catechism"; successive popes Leo XIII and Pius X held him in high esteem and both failed to convince him to accept appointments as head of an archdiocese or as a cardinal.

This solidified through the actions of his twin religious congregations and his visits to both Brazil and the United States, where he went to meet Italian immigrants.

[5] Scalabrini's holiness was renowned across the Italian peninsula and there were countless who attested to his saintliness in an ensuing canonization process; his first title at the outset of the process was that of a Servant of God that Pope Pius XI bestowed upon him on 30 June 1926 while the confirmation of his heroic virtue allowed for Pope John Paul II to title him as Venerable on 16 March 1987.

[4][3] The bishop instead appointed Scalabrini as a professor and then on 6 October 1868 rector of seminarians at Saint Abundius; he taught the Greek language and history there.

Scalabrini received his episcopal consecration from Cardinal Alessandro Franchi in Rome in the chapel of the Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide in Piazza di Spagna and was installed in his new see a couple of weeks after this.

[2] He set his enthronement date because he wanted to preside over the celebrations that his predecessor had called for in regards to the sixth centennial of the death of Pope Gregory X.

On 17 January 1878 a group of ruffians attacked the bishop's coach along the road and threatened him for his obedience to the pope in his denial of a requiem Mass for King Vittorio Emmanuele II.

He began courses in the Gregorian Chant - something Pope Pius X later did and in 1876 licensed the first Italian catechetical review which was the second in the world; he also issued the book "Catholic Catechism" in 1876.

[2][3] Leo XIII later dubbed Piacenza "the City of Catechsis" while Cardinal Giovanni Nasalli Rocca di Corneliano praised Scalabrini's heroic efforts for leading his diocese and for the championing of the migrants.

He also saved thousands of farmers and workers from the 1879–80 famine and twice sold his horses (used for pastoral visitations) as well as a pectoral cross and a golden chalice that Pope Pius IX had given him in order to purchase food.

He also founded the "Deaf and Dumb Institute" in November 1879 to aid the hearing and speech impaired people and ordered that catechism be instructed in all the parishes in the diocese while in 1880 starting the diocesan newspaper "The Truth".

[2] In June 1884 a bout of colic threatened his health and it took a prolonged period to recover from his illness - this was also attributed to sheer exhaustion from his pastoral visitations.

One cardinal as well as eleven bishops and 400 priests were in attendance to this congress; questions discussed included his proposal for a unified catechism that the then-Bishop of Mantua Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto (the future Pope Pius X) supported.

On 9 July 1887 he established the "Saint Raphael Association" (which was later disbanded in 1923) dedicated to the care and protection of migrants and he often gave lectures on the subject in various cities such as Milan.

He viewed migration as a social problem requiring urgent attention but also saw it as a challenge to the Christian faith that could be seen as a strong chance at evangelization.

Scalabrini was present at that Mass in the Sistine Chapel alongside the priest Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli - the future Pope John XXIII.

On 28 November 1887 he founded the Missionaries of Saint Charles and later on 19 March 1889 in Codogno dispatched Frances Xavier Cabrini and six others to go to the United States of America to tend to orphans and ill Italian migrants who had a concentrated cluster in New York City.

In 1892 he founded the "Sant'Opilio Opera" for poor clerics and in 1894 began the process of restoration for the diocesan cathedral that was finished in 1902 but inaugurated on 16 June 1901.

[5] On 18 July 1901 he travelled to Genoa where he was to set sail for the United States of America on a mission to meet and minister to Italian migrants who had settled there.

On 30 January 1901 he had received the congratulations of Pope Leo XIII for the 25th anniversary of his episcopal consecration but the celebrations were postponed to June 1901; in February 1901 he had declined an elevation to the Archdiocese of Ravenna knowing that it implied the cardinalate.

[1] Pope Pius X cried upon hearing the news of the bishop's death and funeral rites were conducted on 4–5 June; the Archbishop of Bologna Giacomo della Chiesa - the future Pope Benedict XV - oversaw the Mass for the transferral of the bishop's remains into the Piacenza Cathedral on 18 April 1909 and said: "Saint Peter's in Rome would not be big enough for the love of Piacenza".

[5] Scalabrini's contemporaries hailed him after his death as a model shepherded who acted in great holiness and had a genuine and deep love for the people he was chosen to lead.

Ludovico Mondini served as his master of ceremonies for over a decade and spoke of his holiness in addition to the meek approach he had to each of his pastoral visitations.

A monument to him was placed at his old parish of San Bartolomeo in Como in 1913 and Pope Pius X sent a personal message for the occasion in which it praised the bishop and his saintliness.

The male order received papal approval from Pope Pius XII on 15 August 1948 and in 2005 had 234 houses with 764 religious with 597 of them being priests.

The nuns gained some protection from Scalabrini due to his careful watch over them but the bishop's death in 1905 prompted the order to move to Alessandria.

[3] The beatification process was held in Piacenza and the informative phase spanned from 30 June 1936 until 29 February 1940; his sister Luisa attested to his virtue but not to a great degree due to her failing strength.

The formal introduction to the cause came under Pope John Paul II on 11 May 1982 and Scalabrini was titled as a Servant of God; the apostolic process was dispensed with.