St. Benedetto Menni, his full name was Angelo Ercole, he was born in Milan on March 11, 1841. He left his banking job to dedicate himself, as a stretcher-bearer, with the wounded of the Battle of Magenta. On 1st of May  1860, he entered the novitiate at the Santa Maria d’Aracoeli hospital in Milan, made his profession in 1864, and was ordained as a priest in 1866. At only 26 years old, he set out to Spain with the challenging task of reviving the Order, after the sad period of Napoleonic suppressions and anti-ecclesiastical political regimes that had succeeded each other until his days.

He succeeded despite many difficulties, but Father Menni, convinced of his good reasons and strengthened by his deep communion with Christ and the Church, knew how to resist opposition and carry forward his fruitful work of service to society and the Kingdom of God. In nineteen years as Provincial, he founded fifteen hospitals. With his restoration and impetus, the religious family also revived in Portugal and Mexico.

Later on  he became the apostolic visitor of the Order and served as General Superior. In 1881, Father Menni skilfully harnessed some inherent virtues of his Order’s spirituality, founding a new congregation of religious women dedicated to caring for women with mental illness: the Hospitaller Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

He died in Dinan, France, in 1914, but was buried in Ciempozuelos, Spain. He has been a saint since 1999 and, therefore, a glory of the Order of the Hospitaller Brother of St. Jhon of God, who see in him a luminous example in the service of the sick, identified with Christ.