He was born on 5 April 1859 in
Milan, Italy, to Rinaldo Ferrini and Luigia Buccellati. He was baptized at the same
baptismal font where
Frédéric Ozanam, also a native of Milan, had been baptized 46 years prior. After receiving his
First Holy Communion at the age of twelve, he joined the
Confraternity of the
Blessed Sacrament. Rinaldo Ferrini, a professor of mathematics and science, taught his son at an early age. Contardo learned to speak several languages. His love for the Catholic faith caused friends to nickname him "Saint Aloysius" (after
Aloysius Gonzaga). He entered the
University of Pavia at age seventeen and, two years later, he was appointed dean of students. At age twenty-one he became a doctor of the law at the university. His doctoral thesis, which related
Penal Law to
Homeric poetry, was the basis of his being awarded a scholarship to the
University of Berlin, where he specialized in Roman-Byzantine law, a field in which he became internationally recognized as an expert. During Ferrini's stay in
Berlin, he wrote of his excitement at receiving the Sacrament of
Penance for the first time in a foreign land. The experience brought home to him, he wrote, the universality of the
Roman Catholic Church. Upon his return to Italy, Ferrini was a lecturer in the universities at Messina, Modena, and Pavia. He received his first professorship at the young age of twenty-six. Contardo attempted to discern his
vocation whether as a
secular priest, a member of a
religious order, or as a married person. Ultimately, he fulfilled his vocation as an unmarried
layperson. He vowed himself to God, became a member of the
Third Order of St. Francis in 1886, and was also a member of the
Saint Vincent de Paul Society, to which he had been introduced by his father, a member of the Society. As a faculty member at
University of Pavia, Ferrini was considered an expert in
Roman Law. Over the course of his career he published books, articles and reviews. He taught for a time at the
University of Paris. He later became a
canon lawyer in addition to being a civil lawyer. An unconfirmed anecdote about Ferrini is that he was asked to attend a dinner party and, once there, found it tedious. His resort was to invite all the guests to join him in praying the
rosary. In 1900, Ferrini developed a heart
lesion. In autumn 1902, in order to rest, he went to his country home in the village of Suna,
Novara, (now part of the
commune of
Verbania,
Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola), on the shores of
Lake Maggiore. While there, he became ill with
typhus. He died at age forty-three on 17 October 1902. Residents of Suna immediately declared him a saint. His colleagues at the University of Pavia wrote letters in which he was described as a saint. == Legacy ==