Our Lady of Consolata is the patroness of the city of Torino, in northern Italy. Blessed Joseph Allamano was rector of the sanctuary from 1880 to his death in 1926.
Inside this sanctuary is an ancient icon of Our Lady, whose origins are discussed, but that probably comes from an old devotion to Our Lady at the People’s church in Rome.
In catholic spirituality, the mother of Jesus has often been associated with compassion, tenderness and consolation. In the apparitions of La Salette in 1846, Mary is presented as a mother in tears who needs the consolation of humanity; the humanity consoles her by working in the Kingdom of her son. The Consolata is primarily the “Consoled”.
Mary is also the one who gives true comfort to mankind, in the person of Jesus the Messiah and Savior of the world. She is Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the mother of all comfort.
Joseph Allamano, who founded two institutes of the Consolata Missionaries in order to bring the Good News of God’s Kingdom to the ends of the world, has clearly understood.
At a meeting of all IMC superiors in 1999, it was recalled that: “From the beginning, the first missionaries of the Consolata chose works and means that today would be called a consolation. They were guided by the She who inspires us a mission for that God who comforts his people and has compassion on his miseries. The mission is born of the heart full of love of God and bears the consolation to humanity.”
Maternal nephew of St Joseph Cafasso, he was born in Castelnuovo d'Asti on the 21st of January 1851. He did his first years of primary school at Valdocco under the guidance of Don Bosco. At the age of 22 he was ordained priest in Turin. Immediately following the ordination he was put in charge of other seminarians, under formation. At the age of 29 he was appointed as rector of the biggest Marian shrine in the city of Turin, the one dedicated to Our Lady Consolata. At the same time he was appointed to be in charge of the newly ordained priests of the diocese, who, then resided at the Convitto ecclesiastico. He founded the Institute of Consolata Missionaries on the 29th January 1901 in Turin. The event was then documented in the shrine bulletin as follows: “The devotion to Consolata will not only be contemplative but also active”. Which implied that with the Consolata missions, the marian shrine acquired a universal dimension. On the 8th of May 1902 he bade farewell to the first four missionaries who left Torino for Kenya. The first group consisted of two priests and two brothers. In the year 1910 Joseph Allamano founded the congregation of the Consolata Sisters. He died in Turin on the 16th February 1926. His remains are currently conserved within the church of Blessed Joseph Allamano, adjacent to the motherhouse of the Consolata Missionaries in Torino.
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