Saint Luigi Scrosoppi Medal Necklace – Patron Saint of Soccer Players & Orphans

Saint Luigi Scrosoppi, Patron Saint of Soccer Players and Orphans

Luigi Scrosoppi was born in Udine, Italy, in 1804 and ordained a priest in 1827. He spent the rest of his life caring for the city's poorest and most vulnerable children, founding the Sisters of Providence of Saint Cajetan to run homes, schools, and workshops for orphaned and abandoned girls. Over the course of his ministry, he's credited with caring for more than six thousand children, work that earned him the title "the Saint of Orphans" long before he ever earned a title tied to sport. He died in Udine in 1884 and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2001, after a Zambian catechist's recovery from AIDS was attributed to his intercession. Then, in 2010, more than a century after his death, an Austrian bishop and a group of football fans searching for a patron saint specifically for soccer players landed on Scrosoppi, drawn to his lifelong emphasis on fairness, discipline, and care for the young. He remains one of the Church's newest and most unusual pairings, a nineteenth-century priest now invoked from the sidelines of a sport he never played.

A Gift For...

• A soccer player, coach, or fan, at any level of the game
• Someone starting a new season, tryout, or team
• Anyone who has worked with orphaned, fostered, or vulnerable children
• Someone living with HIV or AIDS, a patronage tied directly to his canonization miracle
• A confirmation candidate who wants a modern saint connected to sport
• A Saint Luigi Scrosoppi's Day gift on April 3, for any soccer player or coach in your life

A Confirmation Gift for Luigi

For a confirmation candidate who spends more time on the field than in a pew, this is about as direct a match as the calendar offers. Engrave a name and confirmation date, and let his story bridge the two worlds.

The Saint Luigi Scrosoppi Medal

This medal depicts him in his priest's cassock, older and weathered, holding a soccer ball in both hands, his halo radiating outward. The natural gold or silver of the metal forms the illustration itself. Black ink is applied to the pendant surface and the metal shows through as the image. A shatterproof liquid glass coating seals the surface. The result has a depth and precision that printed medals don't achieve.

Personalization and Engraving

The optional engraving on the reverse is rendered in Tangerine cursive, two lines, up to 20 characters each. Many choose a name and a season or tournament date, while others engrave a simple word like "fair play."

Saint Luigi Scrosoppi's feast day is April 3, and he was formally named patron saint of soccer players on August 22, 2010, by Bishop Alois Schwarz of Gurk, Austria, a modern title for a nineteenth-century priest, and one of the few saints in the Church whose patronage was assigned within living memory rather than centuries of tradition.