APOSTOLIC ALMONRY. - It is the palatine office that regulates the granting of pontifical subsidies and of rescripts of the Apostolic Blessings. It seems that its institution, as a proper office, dates back to Gregory X (1271-76); Alexander V with a bull of 1409, Innocent XII with an instruction of 1698 and Gregory XVI with the instructions and warnings of 10 May 1842 fully determined the charitable activity of the E. A.

The E. A., which held the funds for its alms from determined assignments, paid to it by the Apostolic Datary, by the General Enterprise of the lotteries, by the Apostolic Chamber and by the Administration of the spoils, distributed, as it still distributes, fixed and extraordinary alms to the poor, the old, the sick, widows, orphans, etc. It ministered bread and victuals, assigned dowries, assisted the needs of those persecuted on account of the Christian religion and extended its charitable action to public and private pious institutions.

The E. A. moreover had special provisions for the city of Rome and for the Roman countryside. Rome was for this purpose divided into eleven sections with ecclesiastical visitors, doctors, surgeons, and material for health care for the poor. To the poor sick of the Roman countryside the E. A. furthermore paid the transport to the city hospitals.

Leo XII in 1826 instituted a commission of subsidies (which began its activity on 1 January 1827), which, on the basis of information, including domiciliary information, taken from specially appointed persons, granted the requested subsidy. Pius VIII again had the petitions for subsidies remitted to the E. A. Gregory XVI, in 1831, prescribed, by a letter of his cardinal vicar, that the parish priests should furnish the aforesaid petitions with an attestation of their own concerning the person of the petitioner, so that the E. A. would grant the subsidy to truly deserving persons. Thus it is customarily done even now.

The E. A. is also the office in which the apostolic blessings are granted in the form of a rescript signed by the monsignor secret almoner of His Holiness, who is the head of the office and has under him an ecclesiastical secretary, an accountant and other staff attached to the secretariat.

Bibliography8 works

BIBL.: C. B. Piazza, Eusebiologia, Rome, 1679, tr. I, ch. 2, «Della limosina del Papa»; L. Grif. Breve ragguoglio delle opere pie di Roma, ibid. 1862, p. 64; L. Lallemand, Histoire de la charité à Rome, Paris 1878, p. 91; G. Moroni, Dizionario di erudiz. eccl., XXI, n. 156 app.; G. F. Peracci, Rendicante del dispensario generale dell'Elemosineria Apostolica dall'anno 1873 a tutto il 1880, Rome 1881; Th. R. v. Sickel, Ein Quote di Famiglia des Papices Pius IV., Innsbruck 1893, p. 41; T. Ortolan, Cour Romaine, in DThC, III, coll. 1957-58; H. Göring, Die Beamten der Kurie unter Bonflaze VIII., Kölnsberg 1934, pp. 81-82.

Guglielmo Felici

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Apostolic Almonry

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