The Secular Institute Servants of Suffering was founded by diocesan priest Fr. Pierino Galeone, who, following the model and inspiration of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, wanted to take on for himself and his children the service of suffering as a witness of charity to his brothers and sisters.
"I complete in my flesh what is lacking in Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body which is the Church" (Col. 1:24). With these words of St. Paul, John Paul II opens his Apostolic Letter "Salvifici Doloris" on the Christian meaning of human suffering, cited in our Constitutions in Article 3. By suffering we must not mean only physical suffering, illness and suffering of the body. The terrain of human suffering is much broader: there are, in fact, physical suffering, moral suffering and suffering of a spiritual nature.
Founder of the Servants of Suffering Secular Institute is Fr. Pierino Galeone.
Miss Giorgina Tocci was born in San Giorgio Jonico (TA) on March 30, 1940, to Cosimo and Immacolata Basso. She met the founding Father, Fr. Pierino Galeone, in 1954 in the parish of S. Maria del Popolo.
The Servants of Suffering Secular Institute is a single Institute divided into two Sections, male and female, whose members, living in the world, tend to the perfection of charity and sanctify the world with the Gospel of Suffering.
In January 2004 some families, having already made a spiritual journey under the guidance of Fr. Pierino Galeone, expressed the desire to establish a stable group to follow the Charism more faithfully.
