MASSIMO, MASSIMILIANO. – Jesuit, educator, b. in Rome on 3 Jan. 1849 to Prince Camillo Vittorio, d. there on 6 May 1911.
Having completed his studies at the Collegio Romano, he entered the Society of Jesus in Rome in 1868, but due to the political events of September 1870 he went abroad. He studied philosophy at Eppen and Maria Laach, theology at Laval, and in 1876 returned to Rome, where he was ordained a priest. Meanwhile, with the closure of the Collegio Romano, the education of young people had passed into other hands; advised by Mons. C. Boccanera and Fr. P. Crostarosa, he resolved to remedy this by dedicating the Palazzo Massimo-Peretti alle Terme, which had come to him by inheritance, to educational use. Thus, in 1879, the first fifty young men were able to attend the new school. When the old building had to be demolished for structural reasons, Fr. M. had the present Palazzo constructed in the garden behind II. The new school, while conforming to the prevailing curricula, retained the spirit of the ancient Collegio Romano, and the more than 14,000 young men who passed through it over a period of seventy years—many of whom have worked in every field of endeavor—bear witness to the effectiveness of the education they received. Fr. M. served as rector of the school until 1898 and also found time to engage in pastoral work, especially in service to the humblest classes.
Grateful students erected a bust in his honor within the Institute, and the Municipality of Rome gave his name to the largo stradale at the entrance to the Collegio.