John Baptist Scalabrini, Bishop of Piacenza and founder of the Congregations of the Missionaries of St. Charles and the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo Scalabrinians, was born on July 8, 1839 in Como, Italy. At the age of 18, he entered the seminary.

He was ordained a priest in 1863 and consecrated a bishop in 1876.

During his life, Scalabrini carried out many pastoral activities. Scalabrini's sensitivity to the drama experienced by migrant families cannot be separated from his concern for the poorest within Italy itself. His pastoral predilection for prisoners, the sick and the deaf and dumb is well known.

For Scalabrini, it was the Church's task to intervene with the state and political groups whenever the interests of the poor were at stake. In his Pastoral Letter of 1882 to the diocese of Piacenza, he said that it was «necessary to participate in public life, using all lawful means, for the triumph of truth and justice».

This availability and openness to new social issues led him to get closer to the plight of migrants and also to set out to serve the people. In his Pastoral Letter of 1891, he made a statement that even today launches us into mission: «We must leave the temple if we want to exercise a healthy action within the temple!».

In 1880, at the Milan Railway Station, his sensitivity towards migrants was awakened by the dramatic conditions of the poor migrants waiting for the train to Genoa, from where they would board ships for the Americas. This is how the Bishop of Piacenza described them: «In tears, they had said goodbye to their hometown, to which they had so many pleasant memories, but without longing they were ready to leave their homeland. For they didn't know it except in two odious forms: conscription and tax collector. For the disinherited, the homeland is the land that gives them bread: there, far, far away, they hoped to find bread, less scarce, less hard-earned.».

In the search for appropriate responses to the suffering of migrants, Blessed Scalabrini made numerous interventions: He published, drafted bills on Italian emigration, founded the Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Charles (1887), created the St. Raphael Society - a lay movement at the service of migrants - founded the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo (1895), granted diocesan recognition to the Apostle Sisters of the Sacred Heart and sent them to work with Italian emigrants in Brazil (1900).

In order to get to know the situation in which Italian emigrants lived, Scalabrini, at the age of 62 and ailing, traveled to the United States, Brazil and Argentina between 1901 and 1904. During these trips, he made a point of going to every place where there were Italian emigrant communities, regardless of the difficulties they faced. His commitment strengthened the emigrants and consolidated the works started by the missionary priests and sisters of San Carlos.

In a letter from Scalabrini to Pope Leo XIII in 1901, we find an evaluation of the work done. Scalabrini spoke of his motivations and his hope: “If I look at the works accomplished amidst many difficulties, I have great reason to rejoice in the Lord. But if, with thought, I penetrate the depths of my spirit, I see nothing but remorse for the much I have not done or have not done well. But of one thing I can assure you, Blessed Father: in all circumstances I have never had anything in mind but the glory of God and the salvation of the souls entrusted to me.“.

His prophetism, his charity, his love for migrants and his teachings give us the example of a holy bishop and a model for our times. Scalabrini died on June 1, 1905. On November 9, 1997, he was beatified with the title of Father of Migrants by Pope John Paul II.