ORPHANAGE. — An institution of charity and benevolence established for the care and education of poor orphans.
Paganism had shown little concern for orphans; noteworthy exceptions were the Athenians, who had decreed that the children of those fallen in war should be raised at the expense of the State until the age of eighteen; and there was also Plato’s prescription: “Orphans must be entrusted to the care of public guardians. One must fear the orphan’s loneliness and the souls of the deceased parents. Each person must love the unfortunate orphan, of whom he is guardian, as though he were his own child, and must be as solicitous and diligent in administering his property as though it were his own; indeed, even more so” (cf. Leyes, 926-28).
Among the Jews, on the other hand, care for the widow and the orphan was insistently recommended; for them, in fact, the remnants of the harvest of grain, olives, and grapes were reserved (Deut., 24, 21); and God was proclaimed the “Father of orphans” (Ps. 67, 6).
With the advent of Christianity, charity, animated by the words and example of Jesus, began to flourish luxuriantly (v. CARITÀ, STORIA della), and among its various expressions there was also that directed toward orphans, all the more since many had been left orphaned by the martyrdom of their parents. Their care was entrusted particularly to the bishops, who attended to them through the deacons and generally placed them with various families, as may be gathered from the testimonies of the Fathers and the Acts of the martyrs. “Orphans and widows are always commended to the love of Christians. The bishop must raise them at the expense of the Church, and ensure that, when the girls reach marriageable age, they are united to Christian martyrs, while the boys learn an art or a trade and are provided with the necessary tools and enabled to earn their living, so that they may no longer burden the Church’s shoulders more than necessary” (cf. Constit. Apost., IV, 2: PG 1, 867). This care of the Church is particularly emphasized by s. Agostino in his letters (cf. Ep., 252-55: PL 33, 1068-70). The Christian emperors, beginning with Costantino Magno and especially under Giustiniano, granted considerable privileges to orphans. These were under the jurisdiction of the bishop, who governed them through directors called orphanotrophoi (Cod. di Giustiniano, I, I, tit. III, 32).
In the Middle Ages, the flourishing of monastic institutions increasingly broadened the scope of charitable assistance to orphans, who, after first being educated in premises attached to hospitals, later had homes of their own; the monasteries, moreover, took in many of them, teaching them literature and commerce.
The religious Orders and congregations, male and female, which arose everywhere in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, subsequently acquired exceptional merit in the education of orphans and the foundation of special institutions for them: for example, s. Girolamo Emiliani, the “father of orphans,” with his Somaschi; s. Giuseppe Calasanzio with his Scolopi; s. Vincenzo de' Paoli with his Figlie della Carità; and others, thereby also encouraging the emergence of other public and private institutions and foundations. Before and after them, the popes took great care to gather orphans and offer them the means of making a place for themselves in life: suffice it to mention Paolo III, who established the “Compagnia degli orfani” by a bull of 7 February 1540; and Innocenzo XII, who in 1693 took over the orphanage established by Tommaso Odescalchi in 1684, enlarging it, subsequently incorporating it into the “Ospizio dei poveri” of Sisto V, and generously supporting it from his revenues.
From the French Revolution onward, the secularization of charitable works imposed by the modern States—which subsequently proved unequal to the task of replacing the suppressed religious Orders—once again gave vigorous impetus to the activity of the many new Congregations of men and women religious (among their founders in our country, it is enough to mention: s. Giuseppe Cottolengo, s. Giovanni Bosco, il Murialdo, d. Orione, d. Guanella), almost all of which include among their fields of charitable activity the care and education of orphans, both in private orphanages and in those operated for public benevolence. To these were added charitable organizations of various kinds and names, whose purpose was to seek, collect, and administer the funds necessary for maintaining and operating the institutions.