Bicentenary
From July 24, 2024, to the same date in 2025, we will celebrate the bicentenary of the birth and baptism of Luigi Maria Monti, founder of the Congregation of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception, who was declared Blessed on November 9, 2003, by Pope Saint John Paul II.
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The theme chosen for the bicentenary year is: “Qui è cominciato tutto” (Here is where it all began,) a reference to the expression used by Blessed Luigi Monti when, just days before his death, he visited the baptismal font of the parish church of Bovisio, where he received the Sacrament of rebirth on July 24, 1825 the very day of his birth.
These words allude not only to his personal life but also to everything the Holy Spirit wanted to bring forth through him.
To spread this motto, a special graphic has been designed which, along with the bicentennial logo, forms a kind of infographic that will accompany all the celebrations of this time of grace.
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In the construction of the logo, several deeply meaningful elements stand out, layered to give greater emphasis to the drop of water, at the center of which the Montian Cross can clearly be seen.
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The drop of water, more than any other image, simultaneously represents the two events this bicentennial seeks to celebrate: the human life and the life of grace in Luigi Monti.
On the other hand, the drop also symbolizes his smallness, both in a historical and evangelical sense, and at the same time his perseverance—one of the characteristic traits of his journey and the greatest grace he wished for his spiritual children.
In fact, a drop, even if small, when constant, brings life out of the dryness of the earth, and even pierces the hardest rock.
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At the heart of this drop we can see the Montian Cross, the “first work” of the young Luigi Monti, which represents him because it contains the values that animated his entire life and that he offered to many others through his testimony.
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Additionally, it gathers all the shades of the single color used in the logo—blue (a symbol of Montian charity)—which represents diversity in unity: the various ways in which “what began with Luigi Monti” has been and continues to be lived with ever-renewed vitality, reflecting the continuous evolution and renewal of the Montian charism.
By contrast, the white of the cross alludes to purity and innocence—not only that of a newborn child who has just been baptized, but also the purity of intention that is so necessary in transmitting something from one person to another—something that gives identity to all of us, yet does not belong exclusively to any one of us.
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At the lowest layer of the logo we find the number 200, which frames the timeline of the event we are celebrating and, like history itself, forms the foundation on which everything is built.
Above it is the symbol of a location pin, which speaks not only of the geographical place where “it all began” (Bovisio Masciago), but also of all those places where that same “everything” continues to unfold today—places where this bicentennial will be celebrated without hesitation.
