If he had wanted, he could have had a house for himself to the right of the Church, beyond the Mera, in the "crotti" area, which constituted part of his benefit together with a vegetable garden, a crotto as a cellar, and with the offerings for the blessing of homes at Christmas and Easter, those for the blessing of young mothers and for the funerals of children under seven years of age: it was all his benefit. Even today that benefit is registered in his name and every year the archpriest of Prosto, in his denunciation, also lists Don Guanella's house and pays the taxes in the name of the Blessed.
His archpriest, a little rude and elderly, loved him and Don Guanella thought that he could certainly be with him and made his life with him.
On May 31st, the feast of Corpus Domini, his parents, brothers and sisters were present; Don Adamini gave him the solemn speech, according to the best rules of oratory of the time. Don Guanella had asked him for it a few months earlier with a wise letter, one of the first personal documents known about him.
The party will then end with the people scattered among the crotti, on both sides of the Mera, discussing Garibaldi, who twenty days earlier had announced an enlistment of volunteers for the war against Austria, and of course drinking some good wine and singing; and Don Guanella there, in his little room, making the first final assessments, reviewing the resolutions made for the ordination, and looking around a bit: tomorrow we had to really start. The following morning here they are, him and the parishioners
He is tall, well disposed, with a serious face, a strong-willed forehead and twenty-three and a half years of age all full of optimism, courage, dreams: all the dreams that can be had in twelve years of seminary, seeing the world as a large field of organized actions for the great conquest, to hook, patiently cast every day, many big fish: every day like a Shrove Friday.
The parishioners, as many different figures, difficult to penetrate; first approaches, stories of sorrows, of hardships: the daily miseries of this valley of tears, the resigned and resigned face of the days of work in which the optimism of the new priest had to be reflected every day.
On the doorsteps of old people and children; in the fields people intent on cutting, turning, harvesting the fallow fruit: you don't have to stay there for a long time to tell it; and continues towards Villa to find his friend Don Adamini for the first discussions, the first comparisons between expert maturity and anxious youth.
What did the new priest want, what achievements was he aiming for?
He didn't know it clearly either; it appeared like a powerful locomotive capable of dragging a large load and many people far away, but, for the moment, still there, up and down the station, looking for the right platform.
Strong-willed and open, he was a driving force: "he aroused a nice vibration", and he used it to move and enthuse his people. The night of San Sebastiano was long remembered in Savogno: the Blessed was at Villa di Chiavenna to preach when it began to snow; in Savogno the new cemetery had to be built and the necessary stones had to be brought down, and indeed the road had to be prepared for their transport from the mountain. The man of will hurried to the village, took hold of the bell and worked under the snow until midnight on January 20th, preparing the way to carry the stones down; then, once the snow had come and was well packed, it would have been child's play to run the stones from the snow to the construction site. A perfect shot, which saved a lot of work time.
He was energetic, with physical as well as moral energy: we remember the long hours in the rugged mountains to be able to celebrate Mass among his family's mountain pastures, and the controversies he supported to defend his parishioners in that time of violent anticlericalism.
He had a breadth of interests and this made his choice more difficult; and broad views regarding the means to be used for the intended purpose: for this reason someone called him "intriguing", and it may be correct, if we understand what his old archpriest of Prosto says in a letter:
«I know from experience that Don Luigi in his undertakings, when he sees them as good in themselves, does not make much calculation of the circumstances, nor of the means necessary to bring them to an end; and when he has an idea in his head he is unlikely to change it."
He had a tendency towards rigorism which shone through in his life, in his government of souls, in his choice of people and purposes; but also a sweet tenderness towards the miserable, the abandoned. Two fundamental orientations of his life were already clearly visible, which will always remain, albeit scrutinized: resourcefulness and solidity. The first years of experience also soon showed him the goal to reach: the care of the poor; then he will also clarify the means and the way.
The years of Prosto and Savogno (1866-1875) however reveal in Don Guanella a precious but still raw metal, which awaits the test to be refined and appear in all its splendor: an authentic masterpiece of God.