On 4 October 1995 at the Milan Triennale, the institution of the Frate Sole Foundation was officially inaugurated. Father Costantino Ruggeri wanted this to seal the start of a path that would complement the rich production of works in the artistic field that he himself had produced in the decades of the last century.
The space of the Triennale, where the ceremony was held with great participation of authorities and the public, reminded Father Costantino of the 1954 event, the X TRIENNALE, when he was very young and was engaged in realising works in a context of great creativity, alongside representative figures of painters sculptors and architects of the post-war Milanese avant-garde.
It was therefore of great significance for Father Costantino to launch the Foundation right at the Triennale, certifying the great bond he had experienced with artists with whom he had had intense experiences of professional and human growth.
Alongside Father Constantine, we have been able, from one edition to the next, to open ourselves up to the most advanced experiments of prestigious innovative spaces, worthy of being studied for their creativity and ingenuity. The projects proposed come from every region of the world, ambassadors of varied and fascinating visions, expressions of a humanity that differs from place to place in terms of sensitivity and characters of life: a rich palette of colours from which to draw ever new harmonies.
Luigi Leoni was born in Pavia in 1946. While completing his classical studies, he began collaborating at the Canepanova Convent in Pavia with Father Costantino Ruggeri in the research of Sacred Art. He became interested in stained glass windows and studies of mystical spaces.
In 1969, he graduated in Architecture from Milan Polytechnic with top marks. He enrolled in the Pavia Order of Architects, beginning his professional activity with the realisation of numerous churches, chapels, stained-glass windows and sculptures in Italy and abroad together with Fr. Costantino Ruggeri. In 1979, he made the first of many trips to Burundi, which led him to investigate the problem of religious and social spaces in mission lands, with the construction of churches and schools.
In 1986 he opened a second practice in Pavia together with architect Chiara Rovati Most significant realisations
Between 1993 and 1998 with Fr. Costantino Ruggeri he realised the design of the St. Francis Xavier Church in Yamaguchi, Japan.
In 1999, he completed the construction of the new Shrine of Divine Love in Rome, designed with Fr. Costantino Ruggeri, begun in 1987. After 2000 he carried out an intense design activity, collaborating with the Franciscan Fathers of the Holy Land and the Studium Biblicum in Jerusalem for the realisation of projects in Palestine, Israel, Jordan and Syria. In 2006, he completed the restoration of the Grotto of Milk and the construction of the new chapel of the Theothokos in Bethlehem. In 2007, he succeeded Father Costantino Ruggeri as President of the Frate Sole Foundation and opened a workshop to continue making stained glass windows and sacred furnishings.
In 2008, he realised the roofing and adaptation of the Grotto of the Conversion of St. Paul in Damascus. In 2009 he travelled to Brazil to design new churches in the Amazon rainforest. In 2010 he began the first feasibility studies for the construction of the International Family Centre in Nazareth entrusted by the Holy See to the Renewal of the Holy Spirit. He has participated as a speaker at numerous national and international conferences and several of his works have been published in architectural journals.