Early years, family, education, and priesthood Sturzo was born on 26 November 1871 in
Caltagirone to Felice Sturzo and Caterina Boscarelli. His twin sister was Emanuela (also known as Nelina). One ancestor, Giuseppe Sturzo, served as the mayor of Caltagirone in 1864 until an unspecified time, and another ancestor was Croce Sturzo who wrote about the
Roman Question. His two brothers Luigi and Franco Sturzo were well-known
Jesuits. His elder brother
Mario Sturzo (1 November 1861 – 11 November 1941) was a noted theologian and
Bishop of Piazza Armerina. His two other sisters were Margherita and the
nun Remigia (or Sister Giuseppina). From 1883 until 1886, he studied at
Acireale and then in
Noto. He commenced his studies for the ecclesial life in 1888. Sturzo received his
ordination to the
priesthood on 19 May 1894 from the
Bishop of Caltagirone Saverio Gerbino at the
Chiesa del Santissimo Salvatore in Enna. Following his graduation, Sturzo served as a teacher of philosophical and theological studies in Caltagirone; he served as his town's Vice-Mayor from 1905 to 1920. In 1898, he received a doctorate in his philosophical studies from the
Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and he taught that subject in his hometown from 1898 to 1903. The stance of Pope Pius XI was ambiguous - according to Richard A. Webster, "there is no evidence that the Pontiff yielded so openly to Fascist coercion." Sturzo himself leaned towards resignation, aware that his position in the party was vulnerable - as a priest, he was forbidden from sitting in the parliament, and his political power was limited because of his priesthood. It was, therefore, arranged that a secular Catholic,
Alcide De Gasperi, take over the leadership of the party. Sturzo remained active in the party until 1924 when Cardinal Gasparri himself arranged for his emigration to London after fascist pressures and physical threats against Sturzo escalated further.
Exile Sturzo was exiled from 1924 to 1946 first in London (1924–1940) and then in the United States (1940–1946). Sturzo left Rome for London on 25 October 1924. Sturzo was consigned to a three-month educational trip in London; the choice of London was perhaps intended to isolate Sturzo because he did not speak the language and it did not contain a large population of like-minded Catholics. He moved to the residence of the Oblates of Saint Charles in
Bayswater and then in January 1925 to the
Servites at their priory of Saint Mary in
Fulham Road where he was asked to leave in 1926 because the Servites'
motherhouse in Rome was being denied funds as long as Sturzo was their guest. In 1926, Sturzo refused an offer from the Vatican that was communicated through Cardinal
Francis Bourne to serve as a chaplain in a
convent in
Chiswick and lodging for his twin sister Nelina in exchange for ending his journalistic activism and issuing a "spontaneous declaration" that he was retired from politics in full. In November 1926, he moved into a flat at 213b
Gloucester Terrace in Bayswater with his sister where the pair lived as lodgers until 1933. After the signing of the
Lateran Treaty in 1929, he was offered an appointment as a
Canon of
Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome again in exchange for his permanent renunciation of politics. On 22 September 1940, Sturzo boarded the
Samaria in
Liverpool bound for
New York hoping for an academic appointment and arrived there on 3 October 1940. He was instead sent to Saint Vincent's Hospital in
Jacksonville, Florida, which was filled with priests who were ill and about to die. Beginning in 1941, he cooperated with agents from the British Security Co-Ordination, as well as the
Office of Strategic Services and the
Office of War Information, providing them with his assessments of the political forces with the
Italian resistance movement and radio broadcasts to the Italian peninsula. Sturzo returned to
Brooklyn in April 1944 but his return to his homeland received a Vatican and
Alcide De Gasperi veto in October 1945 and May 1946.
Return, last years, and death by
Georges Chevalier Sturzo set off to return to his homeland on the
Vulcania on 27 August 1946 (after the
1946 Italian institutional referendum had abolished the need for a monarch) but did not have a dominant role in Italian politics after his arrival on 6 September 1946 in
Naples. He instead retired to the outskirts of Rome after landing in Naples. In 1951, he founded the
Luigi Sturzo Institute, which was designed to endorse research in historical science, as well as in economics and politics. He was made a member of the
Senate of the Republic on 17 December 1952 and
senator for life in 1953 at the behest of the then Italian president
Luigi Einaudi and he obtained a dispensation from
Pope Pius XII in order to accept the title. On 23 July 1959, Sturzo celebrated
Mass. When he came to the consecration of the
Eucharist, he looked down and slumped. He was carried to his bed still in his vestments and his health took a sharp decline until his death. Sturzo died in Rome in the afternoon of 8 August 1959 at the general house of the
Canossians; his remains were interred in the church of
San Lorenzo al Verano but were transferred in 1962 to the church of Santissimo Salvatore in Caltagirone. ==Beatification cause==