Oblati and Oblate
**RHO (Milan).** College of Oblate missionaries rebuilt in 1912, and sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of Sorrows, work of the architect Pellegrini (1858-88).
### I. Oblates of St Charles in Milan
A group of secular priests who lived under the obedience of the bishop and were entirely at his disposal for the service of the diocese, was suggested around 1570, perhaps by the Oratory of St Philip in Rome, and in March 1578 the bishop put it into practice with a college of priests and ecclesiastical persons under the title of Oblates of St Ambrose (in 1611 the title "and of St Charles" was added).
Gregory XIII approved their Constitution with a bull dated 26 April of the same year; in the following August the formal erection took place at the church of the Holy Sepulchre (which remained the mother-house until 1928) and the particular study of the Rules began, which, tested from 29 February 1579 and elaborated by Cardinal A. Valerio, appeared in their definitive form around October 1581 (Acta Eccl. Mediolan., III, Milan 1892, cols. 49-90). In them the vow of obedience and permanence was prescribed; the vow of poverty in fact resolved itself (and is the present rule) into a cession, in favour of the Congregation, of all material income attached to office and employment and of the alms from Masses, freely accepting a modest annual allowance sufficient for clothing and for any personal needs.
St Charles wanted community life as the basis, but from the end of 1579 he did not make residence at the mother-house obligatory. The Oblates subsequently grouped themselves according to the activity they elected as their preferred title, while remaining obedient to the archbishop. The Oblates worked and continue to work also outside the diocese of Milan. Suppressed by Napoleon, they were restored by Archbishop Monsignor Romilli in 1854.
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### II. Oblate Missionaries of Rho
The College of Oblate Missionaries of Rho (Milan), a specialised branch of the Oblates of SS Ambrose and Charles, was founded by Oblate Giorgio Maria Martinelli (q.v.) and was canonically erected by Cardinal Benedetto Erba Odescalchi on 4 April 1721, at the sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of Sorrows of the Miracles in Rho.
The purpose of the Oblate Missionaries is to preach missions and spiritual exercises to the clergy and religious without receiving any remuneration except for travel expenses. In addition to the vow of obedience to the archbishop pro tempore, they take a vow of perpetual permanence in the College, which they renew every year on 22 July. The rules are those of the Oblates of SS Ambrose and Charles, adapted to their particular way of life according to the Norm followed by Fr Martinelli and the first Fathers of the College of Rho in observing the Rules of the Congregation of Oblates drawn up in 1735 by Oblate G. B. Raineri and published for use by the College in Milan in 1893. The College, governed by a provost and a vicar who remain in office for two years, is independent of the general Congregation in the administration of its property; it is, however, morally and disciplinarily dependent on the general provost of the Oblates.
The College was suppressed by the Cisalpine Republic on 13 October 1798, reopened on 26 July 1799, again suppressed on 25 April 1810 by Napoleon and re-established on 24 October 1814; it was sold to private individuals following the laws and services of 1866; redeemed and registered in the name of private individuals, it was completely rebuilt in 1912. Despite all these suppressions, the Oblate Missionaries of Rho never ceased their work, always conforming to the spirit of their founder.
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### III. Oblates of SS Gaudentius and Charles of Novara
Congregation founded at Novara in 1616 by Fr Francesco Marconi Quagliotti (d. 26 June 1617), after the death of Bishop Bascapé (q.v.), and inspired by that of the Oblates of St Charles. It was canonically erected between the end of July and the beginning of August 1617. Its purpose is the education of the clergy (seminaries and spiritual exercises) and preaching to the people.
### IV. Oblates of St Charles of Westminster
Congregation inspired by that of the Oblates of St Charles, founded in November 1856 in the London district called Bayswater by Fr Manning (q.v.), with the consent of Cardinal Wiseman, Archbishop of Westminster, for the preaching of popular missions in the poorest quarters of the English capital. The Constitutions were definitively approved by Pius IX on 26 June 1877 (cf. *Constitutions Congregationis Anglicanorum Oblatorum S. Caroli*, London 1877).
A. Pietro Frutaz.
### V. Oblates of the Immaculate Conception
Religious congregation founded in 1816 at Aix-en-Provence by Eugène de Mazenod, later Bishop of Marseilles, and approved in 1826 by Leo XII.
De Mazenod, who, as a nobleman, had to leave France as a child and come to Italy with his family (1791-1802), returned to his homeland deeply struck by the ruin that the Revolution had wrought on the religious sphere, and resolved to care for the rural populations that lay in absolute abandonment. Ordained a priest, he gathered around him some zealous fellow priests, laid the foundations of the new Institute and devoted himself to the systematic evangelisation of rural parishes through the preaching of missions, taking St Alphonsus as his model. He wished that preaching to the people should be done through persuasion and permeated by a desire to bring God back into souls profaned by impiety.
Having secured the preaching of missions to the people, De Mazenod agreed to send missionaries overseas. In 1841 he sent the first six missionaries to North America, a modest beginning to a gigantic enterprise, if one considers that, a century later, there are in Canada and the northern territories 1,930 Oblates of the Immaculate Conception organised into five large provinces and eight apostolic vicariates, two of which, Mackenzie and Hudson Bay, extend beyond the shores of the Arctic Ocean and reach, in two sectors, the extreme limit of human habitation.
In this slow and painful march from the southern provinces of Canada to the extreme confines of the earth, the Oblates of the Immaculate Conception wrote glorious pages in the apostolate of the polar lands: two of them were massacred by Eskimo sorcerers, others disappeared into the depths of icy lakes or were suffocated by blizzards in the unchanging snow desert. In 1847 De Mazenod sent the first group of missionaries to the island of Ceylon, where today 260 Oblates of the Immaculate Conception work with four of their bishops, three of them indigenous, in the dioceses of Colombo, Jaffna and Chilaw. In 1851 he sent them to South Africa, where today about 500 Oblates of the Immaculate Conception, divided into five apostolic vicariates, carry out their apostolate among the Bantu peoples. Subsequently the Institute has accepted missions in Australia, Indochina, the Philippines, the Belgian Congo, Cameroon, Japan, and Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay).
Another purpose of the Congregation is the direction of seminaries, the education and instruction in colleges. In this field too, De Mazenod was an innovator: he adopted and had his followers adopt the moral theology of St Alphonsus against the semi-Jansenist rigorism then dominant in the theological schools of France, thereby incurring criticism, hostility, and accusations of "ultramontanism" for his attachment to Rome. In 1848 the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (O. di M. I.) founded the University of Ottawa (Canada [v.]). On the island of Ceylon they run the major higher education colleges of Colombo and Jaffna and control a large part of the periodical press in the two indigenous languages (Tamil and Sinhalese). In Basutoland (South Africa), under their direction, a large university college is emerging, a kind of Catholic University for South Africa.
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**OBLATES OF MARY IMMACULATE**
**OBLATES OF MARY IMMACULATE - Flying mission directed by Frs A. Merlo and L. Torresani, O. di Maria Vergine. Procession on horseback in La Rioja in the highlands of Argentina.**
The Oblates of Mary Immaculate number over 6,000 today, including 30 archbishops and bishops, distributed across 976 houses and missionary stations, grouped into 21 provinces, 15 apostolic vicariates, and 2 prefectures.
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Gaetano Drago
**VI. OBLATES OF MARY IMMACULATE - Religious congregation founded at Carignano (Turin) in 1814 by the priests Giovanni Lanteri (v.), canonically erected on 13 November 1816, dissolved in 1829, and reconstituted by Lanteri in 1825 at Pinerolo. The Congregation and its Rules were approved by Leo XII with the brief *Etsi Dei Filius* of 1 September 1826. Upon Lanteri’s death, in recompense for the persecutions he had endured, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate were entrusted with the sanctuary of the Consolata in Turin (10 January 1834).**
From there and from their other houses at Carignano, Pinerolo, Livorno, and Vercelli, they spread out over the next three decades in intense missionary activity throughout Piedmont and neighbouring regions. Simultaneously (1837), they launched two extensive overseas missions in Ava and Peru (India). Their first apostolic vicar was Mons. G. D. Ceretti, Bishop of Antinopolis; upon his return to Turin due to poor health, he acted as auxiliary bishop to the exiled Archbishop Mons. Franzoni (1847–56). One of their members also proved to be a brilliant polemicist in the two (anonymous) volumes *La libertà della Chiesa* and *Vera e falsa libertà*. Other Oblates of Mary Immaculate worked alongside D. Margotti in the campaign for *Armonia*. In India, Mons. Ceretti was succeeded by Mons. G. Balma, who likewise soon returned to Turin due to illness and served as auxiliary to the same Mons. Franzoni (1856–69), later Archbishop of Cagliari (1871–81). As early as 1835, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate had established a flourishing ecclesiastical boarding school at Nice, which they ran until about 1890.
The period from 1863 to 1900 was marked by continual persecutions and setbacks. The Congregation was suppressed and dissolved three times in Italy and twice in France, and its efforts at reconstruction were repeatedly frustrated: Milan and Como (1856–59), Rocca Priora near Rome (1863–70), Turin, Pinerolo, Carignano, Giaveno (1871–1903). Even during this time, however, it continued its extensive missionary work in dioceses where it managed to survive—Father G. Ferrero alone conducted over 800 popular missions—and provided exercises for the clergy, as well as making a broad contribution to serious religious propaganda through numerous ascetical, hagiographical, and propagandistic works by Fathers G. Giordano, G. B. Inardi, P. Gastaldi (the first biographer of Cottolengo), and the substantial literary output of Mons. G. Berchialla, Archbishop of Cagliari (1881–92).
Since 1900, linked at its outset to the final great persecution under Combes and the return of religious from France to Italy, a period of slow transformation and reconstruction began. The Congregation now has about thirty communities in Italy, France, Austria, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and Colombia. It runs various seminaries in Italy and America; promotes Catholic reading through religious study circles and circulating libraries in all its houses; and devotes itself especially to the religious organisation of the people through parochial and workers’ missions in factories.
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**VII. OBLATES OF ST FRANCIS DE SALES** - Founded in the spirit of St Francis de Sales under the inspiration of the Venerable Maria de Sales Chappuis in the Visitation monastery of Troyes by the monastery’s chaplain, Louis Brisson, in 1871.
The Congregation engages in various works of priestly and parochial ministry, the instruction and education of youth, and missions. The vows taken are simple, annual for the first three years, then perpetual. At present, the Congregation, approved by the Holy See in 1890, numbers over 850 religious with houses in France, Italy, Greece, Austria, Switzerland, America, and two vicariates in South Africa.
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**VIII. OBLATES OF ST JOSEPH OF ASTI** - Institute founded at Asti by the priest Giuseppe Marello, later Bishop of Acqui, in 1878.
The beginnings were most humble, marked by extreme poverty and strong opposition, not least because the new institution lacked a clear identity. Initially, the religious engaged in manual labour, catechising in parishes, and beautifying churches. Later, however, the nature of the Congregation became clearer, and its members devoted themselves to study, parochial and missionary ministry, the education of youth in schools, festive oratories, colleges, patronages, orphanages, and vocational schools. On 18 March 1901 it was erected as a diocesan congregation, and on 11 April 1909 it received the decree of praise and approval of its Constitutions. The Oblates of St Joseph are now established not only in Italy but also have flourishing missions in the Americas and the Philippines and number 350 religious in about 80 houses.
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**IX. OBLATE CONVITRICES OF THE HOLY INFANT JESUS** - Originated in Rome in 1672 through the efforts of Father Cosimo Berlinzani of the Clerics Regular of the Mother of God and of Cosima Moroni for the religious education of girls from the common people.
They adopted the Rule of St Augustine. Other independent houses later arose in various Italian cities, which in 1917 were united under a single superior general. They run kindergartens, schools, and orphanages and number over 2,000 sisters in 18 houses.
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X. OBLATES OF THE HEART OF JESUS
An institute derived from a small community called the "Victims of the Sacred Heart," devoted especially to reparation, which arose at Grottaferrata through the initiative of the Basilian abbot.
In 1894 the new foundation was inaugurated, and on 1 April 1896 it was approved by Cardinal Vannutelli. On 1 November 1916 Cardinal Cassetta, Bishop of Frascati, canonically erected the institute, changed its title to that of Oblates of the Heart of Jesus, and approved its Constitutions. On 5 December 1947 the Sacred Congregation of Religious raised the institute to the status of a pontifical congregation and revised its Constitutions.
The sisters consecrate themselves to a life of reparation to the Heart of Jesus, prayer for the sanctification of the clergy, and work for vocations, with colleges for boys and retreat houses for priests in need of help and rest. The generalate is at Grottaferrata.
XI. OBLATES OF THE ASSUMPTION
Institute founded in 1865 by Fr. E. d’Alzon, already founder of the Augustinians of the Assumption. In 1890 it split into two distinct groups.
The first, with its generalate at Nîmes, received a decree of praise in 1892 but developed little; by 1927 it had only about 60 religious in six houses. The second, with its generalate in Paris, enjoyed more flourishing growth; by 1927 it numbered about 400 members in 34 houses, though it remained under diocesan law. The reunion of the two groups was effected by decree of the Sacred Congregation of Religious on 22 June 1926. The reunited institute was declared of pontifical right and its Constitutions were first approved for a seven-year period on 3 July 1934, and then definitively on 27 October 1947.
The special aim of the institute is apostolic work, especially among dissidents and the “Orthodox.” To this end it maintains schools and other missionary works, above all in the East. In 1950 the sisters numbered 567, with 32 novices, distributed in 56 houses.
XII. OBLATES OF THE HOLIEST REDEEMER
A women’s religious institute founded in 1864 at Ciempozuelos (Spain) by Antonia de Oviedo y Schontal of Mercy for the instruction and re-education of fallen young women. It was approved by the Holy See in 1895 and is spread in Spain with 29 houses and more than 500 religious.
XIII. OBLATES OF SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES
A women’s religious institute founded in 1868 at Troyes by Françoise-Salesia Aviat under the guidance of Fr. Brisson and Marie Chappuis, to assist young working women through schools, family-style homes, boarding schools, and workshops. Expelled from France, they also spread to other parts of Europe. They were approved by the Holy See in 1911. There are 44 houses with over 450 sisters.