He was born Carlo Gaetano Samuele Mazzuchelli on November 4, 1806, in Milan—then under French control, the 16th of 17 children of a prominent family. At the age of 17, he entered the Dominican Order, which was still recovering from the devastation wrought on the Catholic Church institutions in Italy under the French Revolutionary Army. After his period of novitiate, when he changed his name to Friar Samuel, he went to Rome to prepare for ordination. He was ordained a subdeacon in 1827 in the Lateran Basilica, around which time he was recruited to serve in new Diocese of Cincinnati, still missionary territory for the Church.
