Albert of Villa d’Ogna – declared Blessed by the Church in 1748 and immediately referred to as Saint by popular belief due to his reputation as a kind-hearted man and a Christian example – was born in 1214 in a peasant house located on the right bank of the Serio River. However, he spent much of his life in Cremona, where he moved to after the death of his wife. Having joined the Third Order of Saint Francis, he dedicated himself intensely to charitable works and also founded a hospital for the sick and poor.
Upon news of his death, a church was built by his fellow villagers near his birthplace and dedicated to the Saint, along with a hospital, thanks also to the assets he had donated to the community of Villa d’Ogna. This complex, entrusted to the Order of Friars Minor Conventual in the early 1600s and transformed into a monastery, was closed in 1798 due to Napoleonic law.
It then passed into private hands and was largely destroyed by a massive landslide from the overlying Monte Vaccaro in 1823. Only after the transfer of the Blessed’s body to the parish church of Villa d’Ogna in 1903, partial recovery of the original house was undertaken, where traces of the ancient convent still remain.
