BALESTRA, SERAFINO. - Priest and educator, born in Canton Ticino, died 26 Oct. 1886. Having been ordained priest, he set aside the archaeological studies he had undertaken and devoted himself entirely—out of a deeply felt vocation and mission—to the education of the deaf-mute. From the journeys he made abroad after 1867, especially in Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, and France, in order to acquaint himself with the methods applied there, he derived the conviction that speech could be taught—as a general rule—to all deaf-mutes. From his encouragement, reinforced by the favourable reports of others who had gone to Germany to verify the progress claimed for this procedure, most people came to the opinion that Italy should attempt what was being done abroad: it was chiefly then that B. induced educators to abandon mimicry and to give—in the instruction of the deaf-mute—first place to spoken speech and lip-reading.
The superiority of the method of “pure oral” education adopted by him, and the extraordinary results he obtained, were recognized at a congress—convened at his initiative in Milan—of two hundred teachers from every country. His tireless apostolic spirit impelled him as far as distant Argentina, where he founded a first institute for the deaf-mute.
Rosario Guido Tentori