Francesco Faà di Bruno
Francesco Faà di Bruno (Alessandria, 29 March 1825 – Turin, 27 March 1888) was an officer, mathematician and priest, professor at the University of Turin and founder of the works of Santa Zita in the San Donato district; he has been a beatus since 1988.[1][2][3]
The officer
The twelfth and last child of a noble family from the Monferrato, he studied with the Somaschi fathers in Novi Ligure and then at the Military Academy of Turin, where he was a cadet from 1844.[1][2] He fought in the First Italian War of Independence as aide-de-camp to the Duke of Savoy; made captain in 1849, he was wounded at Novara.[2]
The mathematician
In Paris he obtained a degree in mathematical sciences from the Sorbonne in 1851 and a doctorate in 1856, under Augustin-Louis Cauchy; he left the army in 1852.[2][1] In Turin he was a lecturer in higher analysis from 1856 and an associate professor from 1876 until his death; he published the «Théorie générale de l'élimination» (1859) and the «Théorie des formes binaires» (1876), and invented a writing device for the blind (1856) and the «phasiscope» (1858).[1]
The works of San Donato
In 1857 he set up low-cost canteens for workers; in August 1858 he bought a house in the San Donato district, where on 2 February 1859 he established the Opera Pia di Santa Zita for domestic servants, supported by a laundry, and in 1861 a boarding house.[4][2] The church of Nostra Signora del Suffragio, today Santa Zita, on Via San Donato, designed by Edoardo Arborio Mella and completed by him in memory of those who died for Italian unity, was consecrated on 1 November 1876; the bell tower, 83 metres high, he designed himself with the advice of Alessandro Antonelli.[5][3]
The priest and the beatus
He was ordained a priest in Rome on 22 October 1876 and on 16 July 1881 founded the Minim Sisters of Our Lady of Suffrage.[3][2] He died in Turin after five days of illness and is buried in the church of the Suffragio.[3] The cause for his beatification, opened in 1928, concluded with his beatification in St Peter's Square on 25 September 1988 by Pope John Paul II.[3] The museum dedicated to him, at Via San Donato 31, was established by the Minim Sisters in 1980.[6]
Related articles: San Donato (Turin)