Fra Giovanni Battista Orsenigo, OH was one of the most famous persons in Rome in the last period of the 19th century. He belonged to a religious order, the "Hospitaller Order of St. John of God", known in Italy with the nickname "Fatebenefratelli" ("Do good brothers"). An Order, whose only purpose is the care of the sick and poor and runs many medical centres, hospitals, nursing houses, and so on in the whole world. Fra Giovanni Battista Orsenigo was himself a dentist and he was the founder of the hospital in the city of Nettuno.

Fra Giovanni Battista is the name, which he took when he entered the Order ("Fra" means "brother"). In his baptism he received the name of Innocent and he was born on the 24th January of 1837 in the small municipality of Pusiano in Northern Italy, where his father and mother were innkeepers and butchers. Innocent was the second to the youngest of 12 children. His parents died in 1852, when he was only 15 years old.

The Orsenigo-family, who had roots in Como, was fairly prosperous as they owned a house and a bakery. Two of the uncles of Innocent studied in the Diocesan Seminary and one of them, Charles was ordained in 1816 and the other, Innocent in 1829. The religious concern of the family and the early loss of the parents have influenced the life of the boy.

Innocent Orsenigo frequented the local church in Pusiano, where the Parish priest Rev. Felix Mariani gathered a group of persons, who studied the Bible and spent time in meditating on it. Some from the group, which was named "Giardino della Santa Parola" ("The Garden of the Holy Word") began to receive inner messages from Heaven, especially the two sisters Therese and Angela Isacchi, who from the beginning of the 1860's received numerous inner messages from above.

In this period Innocent decided to leave his native town and traveled to Milan for work, where he told of the inner messages in the "Giardino della Santa Parola". His employers amongst others got devoted to the Isacchi sisters, whose spiritual advices Innocent followed on numerous visits in his hometown. During this period his religious vocation grew deeper and he decided to dedicate his life to the care of the sick. He therefore asked the Fatebenefratelli in Milan to accept him in their Novitiate, but he was requested to improve his educational level, since he did not finish the Elementary school at home.

To solve this problem, Innocent decide in the end of 1862 to return to Pusiano to receive some private lessons from his Parish priest. However, he did not succeed in passing the entrance examination and he was now losing heart. But Therese Isacchi told him that Our Lady would help him, if he will make a pilgrimage to the Marian Shrine of "Madonna del Sasso" near Locarno, Switzerland. A little group went with Innocent and Therese, who inside the Shrine received an inner communication assuring the fulfillment of the wish of Innocent. Truly, as soon as Innocent was back in Pusiano, Rev. Mariani informed him that he can be accepted in the Community of the Fatebenefratelli in Florence.

Innocent reached Florence in 1863 and worked four years in the San Giovanni di Dio Hospital, managed by the Fatebenefratelli, who after a trial time of 9 months, accepted him in a provisory way as an Oblate, which means a Brother with religious habit but without religious Vows. In Florence he never lose touch with the group of "Giardino della Santa Parola" and the Parish priest in Pusiano, writing and receiving many letters and some visits.

In Florence he learned also dentistry from his chief nurse Brother Bartholomew Pezzatini, author of a Textbook in Dentistry. His strong desire to became a full member of the Order was granted in 1867, when he was allowed to enter the Novitiate in Rome.

IN ROME:

The Fatebenefratelli were working at that time in three hospitals in Rome, but the Novitiate was situated at the Hospital and the Church of San Giovanni Calibita on the Tiber Island, where Innocent arrived on the 28th of March of 1867. In the Hospital there were 2 wards, "Sala Assunta" was the biggest with 50 beds distributed on both sides of the ward. At the end of the ward there was an altar for the sick being able to follow the Mass from their beds. Beside of the altar there was a staircase leading to a new and very modernized ward, "Sala Amici", with 20 beds. It is still possible to visit the Sala Assunta, a portion of which is now used as a Conference Hall and the remaining portion as a storage area of the Pharmacy.

On the 24th of June 1867 Innocent had finally reached his goal becoming a novice with the new name fra Giovanni Battista ("Brother John Baptist"), a saint to whom he felt a strong connection. Unfortunately during his youth his capacity of learning from books was limited by dyslexia. To help him, a tutor was assigned to him, but with almost no improvement. Although of this problem, which was solved only some years later, he was allowed to continue the Novitiate because of his good moral qualities and of his capability as a nurse and as a dentist.

When all of Italy was united in one Kingdom, the Religious Congregations were suppressed and their properties confiscated. But even if the Tiber Island Hospital was confiscated by the State, the Fatebenefratelli were allowed to work there as a lay Association. The Superior suggested the novices to stop and go home because there was no warranty for the future of the Order in Italy,. But Fra Giovanni Battista asked advice from his old friends, the Isacchi sisters, and they told him that the Our Lady wanted him to continue as a Religious Brother, so he stayed and on the 9th August of 1868 he ended his Novitiate and made his Simple Profession of the four Vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and hospitality (in the sense of consecrating himself to the care of the sick and poor). The ceremony was performed in front of the main altar in the Church of San Giovanni Calibita, which was entrusted to the Fatebenefratelli from 1582.

One of Brother Orsenigo's tasks was to take care for two years of the old and sick confrere Brother Ambrosius Mary Testa, former Superior and dentist at the San Gallicano Hospital (one of the Roman hospitals managed by the Fatebenefratelli), until his death on April 26th of 1870. Brother Orsenigo learned from Brother Testa how to become an expert dentist and also imitated his special devotion to the Madonna del Buon Consiglio (Mother of Good Counsel), which feast was listed in the liturgical calendar of the Fatebenefratelli from 1787.

In 1870 Brother Orsenigo opened in the Hospital a Charity Dental Clinic for the poor and in a short time he became so famous that also many rich became his customers. Consistently with his Vow of poverty, at the beginning, Brother Orsenigo was reluctant to receive money from the rich, until his confrere Brother Testa suggested him to receive their money only as a donation for the yearly celebration on the Tiber Island of the feast of the Mother of Good Counsel every 26th of April. The donations that he received were so many, that it was possible with them not only to face the yearly expenses of the feast, but also to build up a new Hospital in honor of the Mother of Good Counsel in the nearby municipality of Nettuno. The construction of the Hospital started in 1890 and ended in 1892.

After the required minimum of 3 years, at the 28th of August 1871 Brother Orsenigo can eventually make his Solemn Profession of Vows in the Church of San Giovanni Calibita and after that, he continued his work in the Dental Clinic where he received many patients. Besides the many extractions, he also made dental fillings and cured the diseases of the mouth. It appears as he was the only one to do this work and also at the beginning he worked as a night nurse in the Hospital, but later the number of dental patients increased in such a way that Brother Orsenigo was totally focused only in his Dental Clinic.

From documents of 1881 we know that Brother Orsenigo also performed dental care in two other roman Institutions, the Consolazione Hospital and the Ospizio di San Michele.

There was no payment in the dental clinic, which was situated in a little room at the right side of the Church of San Giovanni Calibita, just after Ponte Fabricio, the bridge on the side of the Ghetto. There was an entrance directly from the street and above the doorway there was a sign with his name Orsenigo, which the Romans soon altered to Arsenigo (this word sounds very similar to the Italian name of the poisonous arsenic). The room was not very big and there was no waiting room, so the patients had to wait outside the street under a little sunblind or in a line along the bridge. In a little showcase were the most extraordinary, big and distorted teeth, which Brother Orsenigo removed from his patients. But he also kept more ordinary teeth and it was told, that he had 3 big chests of these.

Brother Orsenigo had "inherited" a lot of wealthy patients from his teacher Brother Testa, both people from the Church and people from the well-known families in Rome. He went to examine these patients in their homes as he did with the contemplative nuns in their seclusion. Once he went to the Monastery di Tor de' Specchi for a tooth extraction, because two young nieces of Pope Pius IX, the countesses Mastai, lived there in order to make their Vows. Even the Royal House sent for him because of his reputation. It was told, that he could do an extraction in such an easy way, that it nearly was not noticed by the patient. Queen Margherita was so pleased, that she afterwards helped him sponsoring the hospital for the poor, which Brother Orsenigo founded in Nettuno.

It was not before 1882 that Brother Orsenigo passed the University examination and obtained a diploma in minor surgery. That title was enough to practice dentistry, because at his time it was not yet obligatory to be a doctor. We know that Brother Orsenigo was a very tall and strongly built man and that he everyday exercised his muscles and so he had the strength to do the extractions with his fingers only, while he was touching the teeth. This fastness of the extraction and the quickness of the "operation" would be one of the reasons, that the extraction for most of his patients were without much pain and in no way traumatic. Brother Orsenigo considered it a grace from God, that he was able to help the patients so well.

And it was not just because of his talents as a dentist, that Brother Orsenigo was very popular both amongst the Brothers and amongst the people outside. Amongst those who came to him for advice was the Englishman Joseph Augustine Englefield, whom he already met in Florence and who eventually lived in Rome in Hotel Laurati (today known as Hotel Traiano) in Via IV Novembre. Englefield and his wife Agnes were also devoted to the Isacchi sisters and after 1892, when they moved to Rome they became closer friends of Brother Orsenigo. So close, that he left them a notebook with his personal annotations and letters about the visions of the Isacchi sisters. These annotations unfortunately have disappeared, but in the month of December 1904 Englefield wrote a summary of the annotations and of some episodes of Brother Orsenigo's life, which have later been used in the biographies of the famous dentist.

Amongst the episodes mentioned by Englefield was that even the Superiors of his Order asked the advice of Brother Orsenigo and that it was mostly due to him, that the Order in 1892 succeeded in buying back the Hospital, which after the unification of Italy had been confiscated by the State.

In 1904 he organized for the last time the feast of the Mother of Good Counsel. He had a cancer in the stomach and after the feast he felt so weak and tired that he decided to have a rest in the Hospital that he founded in Nettuno. He died the 15th of July of 1904 and was buried in the cemetery of the Municipality, where he rested for a 100 years. In 2004 his remains were moved to a new grave in the Chapel of his hospital at the right side of the entrance, just in front of the faithful copy of the original painting in Genazzano of the Mother of Good Counsel which he had put on the top of the main altar of the Chapel in 1893.

 

Bibliography on Fra Giovanni Battista Orsenigo:
Molteni, Giancarlo: Il Giardino della “Santa Parola”. I segreti di Angela e Teresa Isacchi, Oggiono (LC), Cattaneo Paolo Grafiche Srl, 2009.
Magliozzi, Giuseppe: Er cacciadenti auffa de 'na vorta. Fra Giovanni Battista Orsenigo o.h. (Estratto da Vita Ospedaliera, gennaio 2007-gennaio 2009)
Magliozzi, Giuseppe: Fra Orsenigo: il brianzolo che conquistò Roma. Nettunocitta.it.
Magliozzi, Giuseppe: La vocazione religiosa di Fra Orsenigo.

 

I should like to express my gratitude to Br. Joseph Magliozzi, OH, who had kindly revised this translation based on his information.

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