Less than two hundred meters separate the house where Alessandro Volta was born and died from the church where he was baptized and where his funeral was held. The great scientist from Como was a man of “home, laboratory, and church,” as well as someone capable of forging important international relationships. In the biography written by Callisto Grandi in 1899, the centenary of the pile, it is recalled that in San Donnino – a temple of Romanesque origin, rebuilt in the 14th century and renovated in the 17th century – Volta also held very popular catechism lessons: “Almost every Sunday […] he, in a corner of the church […], is surrounded by a multitude of young people and children, all intent on learning the catechism from his lips […]. Volta’s doctrine class was the most crowded, and often many could not find a place!” This exceptional aptitude for teaching sacred scripture is confirmed by an illustrious visitor, Silvio Pellico, who met the renowned physicist in Como after the latter had retired to private life in 1819. In his poem “Alessandro Volta,” Pellico credits Volta with helping him rediscover his faith. “In the Gospel, the gaze / Fixed as in the heavens, and in him I feel / All the power of truth strong,” the scientist would have said to the writer. In San Donnino, on February 19, 1745, Volta was given the names Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio, and two hundred years later, a plaque bearing the text of the baptismal certificate was placed near the baptismal font. His funeral was held in the same church on March 7, 1827. A “catarrhal fever” – as stated in the death certificate registered at the parish church – had taken away, two days earlier, at 3 a.m., the man capable of opening up new horizons for all humanity.
