Giuseppe Cognata (Agrigento, 14 October 1885 - Pellaro, 22 July 1972) was an Italian Catholic bishop and member of the Salesians of Don Bosco.
At 12 years old, Giuseppe entered the Saint Basil Salesian School of Randazzo in Sicily and also applied for a vocational following as a priest among the order of Don Bosco, among a bitter opposition from his father and grandfather.
He made perpetual profession as a religious man on 5 May 1908 in Saint Gregory of Catania in front of the Rector Major of the Salesians, Blessed Michael Rua.
From Trapani he was then called to direct the college of Randazzo, then that of Gualdo Tadino in Umbria, and finally he was director of the "Sacro Cuore" in Rome, where today is the Main Salesian headquarters.
On 16 March 1933 Pope Pius XI appointed him bishop of Bova, a particularly poor and disadvantaged Calabrian diocese: a real "mission" on Italian soil, on a human, civil, cultural, religious and spiritual level.
It was in fact made up mainly of small towns, lost in the mountains, devoid of roads, water, bread, school and priests.
Through steep paths and mule tracks, Monsignor Cognata, who had chosen the Pauline expression "Caritas Christi, urget nos" as his episcopal motto, wanted in perfect missionary style to visit and comfort not only all the villages of the diocese, but also groups of poor families.
Man of faith and prayer, open to the breath of the Spirit of God, he created a pious society of generous young women, willing to work with courage and joy, in the smallest, most remote, most abandoned centres.
He went far, precisely to a Salesian community in Castello di Godego, living for long years in silence and solitude, separated from his spiritual daughters.