On the site of the present building stood the house where Maddalena Caterina Morano was born, on 15 November 1847. She devoted her life, from a young age, to schooling, teaching and the catechism, until, in 1879, with the encouragement of Don Bosco, she took her vows and became a nun in the Daughters of Mary the Helper. From 1881 onwards she would be in Sicily, where she was committed to the education of working class girls and boys. Maddalena Morano died on 26 March 1908 in Catania, the same city where she was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 5 November 1994.
