Roman Catholic Cardinal. Born to a noble family of Flanders origin, Giuseppe Maria Dusmet was the eldest son of Marquis Luigi Dusmet and Marquise Maria Dragoneti. Admitted to the school attached to the Benedictine abbey of San Martino delle Scale in Monreale, in 1832 his father made him return to Naples, where the family had by then settled, out of concern that his son was going to follow an ecclesiastical vocation, however less than two years later Giuseppe went back to the abbey when his father realized he could not change his son's desire. Entering the Order of Saint Benedict in the Benedictine abbey of Montecassino, making his solemn profession on August 15, 1840 in the hands of Dom Eugenio Villaraut, he selected two of his baptismal names, Giuseppe Benedetto, as his religious name. In preparation for the taking of the vows, he went to a retreat preached by Michelangelo Celesia OSB., future Cardinal, who became his life long friend. Lector of philosophy and theology in the houses of studies of his Order, Dusmet was ordained priest on September 18, 1841 in Monreale, having obtained a dispensation for not having yet reached the canonical age. Being soon sought as a preacher and confessor, he lectured philosophy and theology while serving the positions of archivist, cantor, and secretary to Abbot Carlo Antonio Buglio, whom he accompanied him on visitations to the abbeys of Caltanisetta and Catania. In 1847, the General Chapter held in Florence, transferred Abbot Buglio and his secretary to the abbey of Santa Flavia in Caltanissetta. The General Chapter named him as prior of the abbey of Ss. Severino e Sossio of Naples, on June 12, 1850 while that of May 1852 held at Montecassino, named him prior and administrator of the named abbey of Santa Flavia in Caltanissetta. The following Chapter held in Perugia in 1858, named him abbot of the monastery of San Nicolò l'Arena, Catania. He occupied the latter post until October 15, 1866, when it was confiscated together with all the properties of the religious Orders by the New Kingdom of Italy. Appointed archbishop of the metropolitan see of Catania on February 22, 1867, he received his episcopal consecration on the following March 10 inside the basilica of San Paolo Fuori le Mura, Rome, from Cardinal Antonino Saverio De Luca. With the Italian Government returning the confiscated churches to the ecclesiastical authority in 1867, Dusmet received the seminary of Catania, however, it was not until 1878 that the Government granted him the exequatur which enabled him to take full possession of his archdiocese. Pope Leo XIII created him cardinal priest with the title of Santa Pudenziana in the consistory of February 11, 1889. The Cardinal died on April 4, 1894, around 10.30 pm., inside the archiepiscopal palace of Catania. His body was exposed in the metropolitan cathedral, where the funeral took place on two days later, followed by burial in the chapel of the archconfraternity dei Bianchi in the local cemetery. His incorrupt remains were transferred to the metropolitan cathedral of Catania in May 1904 and placed in a monument designed by architect Filadelfio Fichera. The effigy in marble was sculpted by Pasquale Leotta. Later, his remains were placed in an urn for public veneration. A saintly and shrewd man, revered in Catania as the "friend of the poor", his cause for beatification was introduced by Msgr. Carmelo Patanè, Archbishop of Catania, on January 7, 1931. In 1935, an imposing monument commemorating the late Cardinal was unveiled in Catania by Cardinal Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster OSB., Archbishop of Milan and future Blessed. On July 15, 1965, Pope Paul VI signed the decree of heroic virtues proclaiming him venerable while Pope John Paul II beatified him on September 25, 1988.