ISTITUTO DELLA CARITÀ. - Religious congregation with simple and perpetual vows, founded Rosmini Serbati (v.) on February 20, 1828, at Domodossola, approved by Gregory XVI on September 20, 1839.
The impetus for the foundation came to Rosmini
ISTITUTO DELLA CARITÀ - An inner courtyard of the Collegio Nuovo Mellerio-Rosmini - Domodossola.
from the b. CANOSA (v.) who would have wanted him as a companion in starting a religious society for men similar to her Daughters of Charity. Rosmini subsequently followed another design along the lines of his asceticism. The purpose of the I. della C. is the most extensive realization of charity possible, meeting the various needs of places and times and following the invitation of one's neighbor, not anticipating it by one's own initiative. As for poverty, the I. della C. as such cannot own property, while individuals may have property, a principle that Rosmini succeeded in having approved, not without opposition, in 1839.
Currently the religious members, among priests, teachers, and "brothers," number about 500, and are found in Italy, England, Ireland, North America, and Africa. In Italy the I. della C. initially devoted itself to teaching (elementary schools, reformatories and orphanages, boarding colleges, of which the best known is that of Domodossola, and others in Stresa and Turin); later it also took on parishes (Montecompatri, Milan, Trapani). In England it began with popular missions, and especially through the work of Fr. Gentili it took an active part in the revival of Catholicism in the early nineteenth century, later taking over parishes and colleges of which the most famous is Ratcliffe. In Ireland it has institutes for orphans and juvenile delinquents; in America, parishes. In Africa, missions began in Tanganyika in 1945.
Among the religious who brought renown to the I. della C. may be mentioned Fr. Luigi Gentili, missionary in England (1801-48), Fr. Giovanni Battista Pagani (1806-70), author of the Anima divota del S.mo 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, ascetic writer (1835-1901).