INSTITUTE OF CHARITY. - A religious congregation with simple and perpetual vows, founded by the priest Antonio Rosmini Serbati (q.v.) on 20 February 1828 in Domodossola, and approved by Gregory XVI on 20 September 1839.
The impetus for the foundation came to Rosmini from the Institute of Charity of Blessed Maddalena of Canossa (q.v.), who would have wished him to join in establishing a religious society for men similar to her Daughters of Charity. Rosmini then followed a different plan in accordance with the lines of his own asceticism. The purpose of the I. of C. is the most extensive possible realization of charity, meeting the various needs of places and times and responding to the call of others without anticipating it through one’s own initiative. As regards poverty, the I. of C. as such cannot possess property, while individuals may, a principle which Rosmini succeeded in having approved, not without opposition, in 1839.
At present the religious, including priests, teachers, and lay brothers, number about 500, and are found in Italy, England, Ireland, North America, and Africa. In Italy the I. of C. initially devoted itself to education (elementary schools, reformatories and orphanages, boarding schools, the best known of which is that in Domodossola, with others in Stresa and Turin); later it also took on parishes (Montecompatri, Milan, Trapani). In England it began with missions to the people, and especially through the work of Fr. Gentili took an active part in the Catholic revival of the early 19th century; later it assumed parishes and colleges, the best known of which is Ratcliffe. In Ireland it has established orphanages and institutions for wayward youth; in America, parishes. In Africa, missions began in Tanganyika in 1945.
Among the religious who have distinguished the I. of C. may be recalled Fr. Luigi Gentili, missionary in England (1801–48); Fr. Giovanni Battista Pagani (1806–70), author of *Anima divota del Santissimo Sacramento*; Fr. Giuseppe Calza, philosopher (1821–98); Fr. Luigi Perez, poet and Dante scholar (1822–79); Fr. Vincenzo De-Vit, Latinist (1811–92); Fr. Pietro Prada, historian (1837–1900); Fr. Luigi Lanzoni, ascetical writer (1835–1901).