CONSOLATA MISSIONS INSTITUTE. - In 1891 Canon Giuseppe Allamano (v.), nephew and continuator of the work and spirit of St. Joseph Cafasso, with the aim of responding to the needs of not a few missionary vocations, particularly among the Piedmontese clergy, proposed to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide a plan for the erection in Turin of a missionary institute. From Rome came encouragement for its realization, but owing to circumstances independent of Allamano, the founding of the I.M.C. had to be deferred until 1901. On January 29 of that year, after the collective approval of the founding plan by the Piedmontese episcopate, which had already come on September 9, 1900, Cardinal Agostino Richelmy, Archbishop of Turin, issued the decree of erection of the Institute, constituting Allamano himself as its superior, who then remained in that office until his death (1926).
The members of the new Institute had no religious vows, but were bound by an oath to dedicate themselves to the foreign missions for a determined period of time, after which they could return to their respective dioceses. In 1909, however, the Sacred Congregation of Religious, granting the decree of praise on December 28, gave the Institute its present form of a religious Congregation with simple vows. Thus constituted and given its exclusively missionary character, the Institute, by decree of January 8, 1911 of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation, passed under the dependence of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, which on September 7, 1923 definitively approved it together with its Constitutions, later modified by decree of January 17, 1950 for the updating required by the division of the Institute into delegations.
The first missionaries departed for British East Africa in 1902, settling around Mount Kenya under the dependence of Msgr. Allgeyer, apostolic vicar of Northern Zanguebar. They had as collaborators in the apostolate the Vincentian Sisters of the Little House of Divine Providence, later replaced by the missionary sisters of the Consolata, founded by Allamano in 1910. In 1905 the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide detached the Kenya mission from Zanguebar and entrusted it exclusively to the I.M.C., erecting it shortly afterward in 1909 as an apostolic vicariate. Subsequently various other missions were entrusted to the I.M.C.: in 1913 the apostolic prefecture of Kaffa (in 1937 the apostolic vicariate of Gimma); in 1922 the apostolic prefecture of Iringa, now an apostolic vicariate; in 1924 the apostolic prefecture of Benadir (in 1927 the apostolic vicariate of Mogadishu, later passed to the Franciscan Fathers); in 1926 the apostolic prefecture of Meru (Kenya); in 1948 the nullius prelature of Rio Branco (Brazil); in 1951 the apostolic vicariate of Florencia (Colombia). The I.M.C. has furthermore been present since 1925 in Portuguese Mozambique under the dependence of the bishops of Lourenço Marques and Nampula, and since 1937 it has also sent groups of missionaries to aid the bishops of the territories of Formosa in Argentina and of Magdalena in Colombia.
The African missions for the most part require that the strictly missionary activity be prepared and accompanied by a broad work of raising the physical and social environment of the native populations. For the missionaries of the Consolata this requirement became a constitutional characteristic of their existence (V. C. Vanzin, Nasce un missionario, Parma 1943, p. 115). Following the directives of the Holy See, they associate with the apostolic work an intense work of civilization (land reclamation, vocational instruction, schools). In relation to this method and program of work, and in order to render the work of evangelization more effective, the Institute provides for the formation of its members with theoretical and practical studies of medicine, ethnology, anthropology, arts and crafts.
In its first fifty years of existence the I.M.C., besides the notable results in the field of the apostolate, due in large part to its strong unitary spirit of action (notable above all, in the African missions, the founding of seminaries and native religious congregations) has brought - through widespread publications, through its periodical, through other active forms of propaganda - a decisive contribution to the penetration and diffusion of the missionary idea in Italy and particularly in the dioceses of Piedmont. To this end the two associations which the I.M.C. has brought to life in Italy and abroad are also directed: the Unione Dame missionarie della Consolata (founded in 1923), with the specific purpose of providing for the liturgical needs of the Mission churches, and the Associazione Amici Missioni Consolata (founded in 1947): a broad organization extended to every class and condition of persons, with the aim of drawing the widest and most active interest around the missionary problem.
Among the most eminent personalities of the I.M.C., besides Filippo Perlo (v.), first apostolic vicar of Kenya and first successor of Allamano, mention should be made of: Gaudenzio Barlassina (b. 1880) who in 1913 accomplished, in the guise of a merchant, the arduous and adventurous penetration into Kaffa, subsequently bringing the apostolic prefecture to unhoped-for developments in the brief span of a few years (v. GIMMA, apostolic vicariate of) and was afterward, for two decades, superior general of the Institute; Gabriele Perlo (1879-1948), first apostolic vicar of Mogadishu; Francesco Cagliero (1875-1935) to whom is due the work of reorganizing the Mission of Iringa after the First World War; Giuseppe Perrachon (1886-1944), apostolic vicar of Niery, known for linguistic studies and for the skillful school organization of his vicariate; Giovanni Balbo (1887-1937) whose contribution to the natural sciences is appreciated, with the discovery of not a few new species of tropical flora (to him is dedicated the genus Jobalboa of the family *Icanicaceae**); Giovanni Bisio (1903-47) and Domenico Fiorina (b. 1904) to whom is due, in little more than a decade (1937-1948), the broad expansion of the I.M.C. in Brazil.
The General Curia has its seat in Turin, but the Institute is diffused, besides in many dioceses of Italy, also in Portugal, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, the United States, Canada, South Africa and England. It is not divided into provinces, but preserves a single general direction, while having delegations erected by the Holy See, according to a twofold criterion of region and of activity.
The publicity organ of the I.M.C. is the monthly periodical Missioni Consolata founded by Allamano in collaboration with Canon G. Camisassa (original title: La Consolata) in 1899. The Institute now numbers 440 fathers, 102 lay coadjutors, 202 clerics and over 600 aspirants.
Bibliography5 works
A. Pietro Frutaz