The Monument to the Blessed Giuseppe Dusmet or Statua Cardinale Beato Dusmet is an outdoor monument and statue located on Piazza San Francesco d'Assisi, located between the church of San Francesco and the Palazzo Gravina-Cruyllas (Museo Belliniano) in the city of

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

, Sicily, Italy.

History and description

The monument was commissioned by the comune of Catania to honor its formal archbishop and cardinal,

Giuseppe Benedetto Dusmet Giuseppe Benedetto Dusmet (15 August 1818 – 4 April 1894) – born Giuseppe Dusmet – was an Italian Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Cardinal (Catholicism), cardinal who served as the Archbishop of Catania from 1867 until his death. H ...

(1818 - 1894), who was admired for his devotion to charity for the poor. The monument was designed in 1935 by Raffaele Leone and Silvestre Cuffaro, and sculpted by Mimì Maria Lazzaro. Lazzaro is also responsible for some of the sculptures found in Piazza dell'Università. The statue of the cardinal is mildly elongated and larger than life; he is dressed in his preferred cloak of a

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

monk. The militant sobriety of the monument and its large tall pedestal, or base, with the coat of arms of the cardinal seem to counter the emphasis on charity. The base has four reliefs depicts events of charity, including one showing the cardinal with

Mount Etna Mount Etna, or simply Etna ( or ; , or ; ; or ), is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, Italy, in the Metropolitan City of Catania, between the cities of Messina, Italy, Messina and Catania. It is located above the Conve ...

in background. The inscription has an anti-Marie Antoinette quote: ''Sin quando avremo un panettello noi lo divideremo col povero'' (''As long as we have a cake we will share it with the poor''). Further praises are in a convex area of the base in the rear.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dusmet Monument Buildings and structures in Catania Sculptures of men in Italy 1935 sculptures