This church is the only one in the world dedicated to St. Benedict Joseph Labre, who, sometime in his early 20s, felt a calling to "abandon his country, his parents, and whatever is flattering in the world to lead a new sort of life, a life most painful, most penitential, not in a wilderness nor in a cloister, but in the midst of the world, devoutly visiting as a pilgrim the famous places of Christian devotion".