D'INSENGARD, GIUSEPPE. - Missionary of St. Vincent, apostle of catechesis, born to the noble d'I. family in La Spezia on 25 September 1844, died in Rome on 9 July 1913. Ordained priest on 21 September 1867, he embraced the religious life in the Congregation of the Mission on 19 November 1872. From that year until 1901, he taught literature at the imperial Lercari boarding school in Sarzana. In 1901, he was entrusted with teaching moral and sacred eloquence in Turin, from where he moved in 1908 to Rome as procurator general of his community at the Holy See and consultant to the Sacred Congregation of Rites.
His passion for organized catechetical instruction in the form of a school dates back to the early years of his priesthood, and in 1872 he succeeded in having it adopted in the cities of La Spezia, Sarzana, Lerici, and Massa. From then on, he took an active part in every catechetical initiative in Italy. Days, weeks, congresses—especially the first national one held in Piacenza in 1889 and the second in Milan in 1910. In that same year, he took over the direction of the periodical *Il catechista cattolico*, to which he had contributed effectively since 1889. His articles, widely appreciated and eagerly awaited, often took the form and scope of exhaustive monographs. Apart from these, he published the volumes: *Lezioni ed esempi di un eminente catechista, ossia il Catechismo secondo mons. Dupanloup* (Turin 1891), and *Breve cenno di catechista* (Rome 1910). He was a member of the Commission for the reform of the Breviary under Pius X and played a major role in drafting the official text of the Catechism of the same Pontiff.