St Benedict Menni was born in Milan on 11 March 1841. The horrors of the war and the example set by the Brothers of St John of God awakened his vocation to become a Hospitaller. On 1 May 1860 Angelo Ercole Menni entered the novitiate of the Santa Maria d'Aracoeli hospital in Milan, taking the name of Benedict, making his simple vows, and after three years, his solemn profession. In 1867, with the blessing of Pius IX, he was sent to Spain to re-found the Hospitaller Order. During the latter part of his life Benedict held important and prestigious posts within the Order. Pope St Pius X appointed him General of the Order in 1911. During this brief period of his Generalate he suffered from misunderstandings and slander which led to his resignation as Prior General. He himself said in a letter to the sisters: “…outside this love (Jesus), the earth is a place of exile, a wasteland, a prison; but this love transforms pain and sorrow, and crosses, and being reviled and imprisoned into the highest good.” 

Benedict died in Dinan, France, on the morning of 24 April 1914. His remains lie in the Mother House of the Sisters Hospitallers he founded at Ciempozuelos.

He was canonised by Saint John Paul II on 21 November 1999.

Saint Benedict Menni teaches us that the aesthetics of Hospitality is manifested by caring.

In the words of Brother Benedetto Menni to the Brothers: “…Aesthetics, that is, the art of making what we see around us beautiful and artistic, is of such importance that it would be a cause for serious censure for a prior to neglect this in the hospital entrusted to him. The prior must therefore make sure that the entrance to the building looks attractive, as well as the rooms and wards, and let us not overlook the need to make the floors and the furniture, plants and flowers look spotlessly clean, both inside and outside the house, in the gardens, on the balconies, in the courtyards, at the entrances, in the dormitories... of the Hospital.”. And again: "We also command all our Brothers to pay attention to their personal cleanliness, especially their faces and hands. Their nails, clothes, shoes... and also their discretion; good manners, taking care to please everyone as well as possible, and to displease no-one (unless conscience tells us otherwise)... ... ensuring dignity, decorum and culture in our words and deeds, so that the other person is accorded all the consideration, respect and attention due to them... To do this we must earnestly endeavour to acquire what we call good manners, in everything we do or say…”

For Brother Benedict, the first act of care begins with the aesthetics of the hospital or centre, showing our care for beauty. Tidiness and cleanliness are not enough; we also need good taste, harmony, the ability to search after beauty. Beauty embodies a virtue that reflects the beauty of God and awakens a desire and a quest for the Divine. The holiness of St Benedict Menni developed in this dimension. He was able to place the "leftovers from life, scraps to be discarded" at the very heart of his hospitality.