Pietro Casaretto

He was born Francesco Casaretto in Ancona in 1810 into a family of merchants from Genoa, the eldest son of Giacomo and Maddalena Casaretto.Although always sickly, at the age of 17 he was admitted into the novitiate of the Abbey of Santa Maria del Monte in Cesena, which was part of the Cassinese Congregation headquartered at the ancient Abbey of Santa Giustina in Padua, and he was given the religious name by which he is now known.

In the struggle to fend for themselves during this long interval, they had acquired habits which were hard to shed on their return to the monasteries, and which they knew they might have to resume at any time.

In regards to their spirituality, greater store was set by the kind of devotional exercises and pious practices suitable for a parish priest than by the liturgy performed in common.

The political divide in Italy between those who welcomed the movement for national unification and those who defended the status quo gave rise to factions within monastic communities.

He reluctantly accepted assignment to the parish of S. Martino in Pegli, near Genoa, which had been entrusted to the pastoral care of the Congregation, but was in danger of being seized by the cathedral chapter of the diocese.

[2] With the support of Charles Albert of Sardinia and his minister, Count Solaro della Margarita, he obtained from his superiors to begin an attempt at common life according to the Benedictine rule and the constitutions in the small convent adjacent to the parish, donated by the Doria Pamphili princes.

[4] Casaretto set about transforming the parish house into a monastery, for which he enlisted the Master of novices of the Abbey of Subiaco as a companion, and soon recruited a small group of candidates to monastic life.

[2] Very shortly the King gave the community the more spacious quarters at the nearby former Charterhouse of San Giuliano d'Albaro, where in 1844 Casaretto was named an abbot by the Cassinese Congregation, which was impressed by the ability he had unexpectedly shown.

This step drew the criticism of excessive centralization of monastic life, but the new congregation thrived, and received final papal approval in 1872, only five years after its inauguration.

[5] Charged with misusing the congregation's finances, Casaretto managed to demonstrate that he had acted correctly, but his morale was shaken and his health was undermined.