### ORISTANO, DIOCESE OF
City and diocese in the province of Cagliari, comprising 38 communes in the province of Cagliari and 18 in that of Nuoro.
It has an area of 4,000 sq. km and a population of 130,000, all Catholic; it has 77 parishes served by 116 diocesan priests and 26 regular clergy; it has a seminary, 3 male religious communities and 36 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 302).
The diocese was established in the 11th century. Boniface VIII raised it to metropolitan status on 24 April 1296. Bishop G. Serra, created cardinal in 1500, held the see until 1510. On 15 July 1515 the diocese of S. Giusto was united to it; its last bishop was Msgr. G. Toreglia. The archbishop holds the titles of Bishop of S. Giusto and Abbot of S. Michele in Thomis. The cathedral is dedicated to the Assumption; the patron saint of the diocese is St. Archelao.
O. was the seat of the judges of Arborea, one of the four giudicati of Sardinia in the 11th century. O. had the curacies of Simaghis, Milis, Barbagia, Ololai and Gilciber. Under Aragonese rule, Tuscan—especially Pisan—artistic influence continued.
The cathedral was erected by Archbishop Torgotorio and by Mariano, judge of Arborea, in 1228. It then took the form of a basilica and Roman columns and capitals were taken from nearby Tarrò; inscriptions document this construction. D. Scano identified two slabs with bas-reliefs of the 8th–9th century, perhaps spolia.
### ORIONE, LUIGI
Priest, founder of the Little Work of Divine Providence, b. at Pontecurone (Alessandria) on 23 June 1872, d. at Sanremo on 12 March 1940. As a boy he entered the Friars Minor at Voghera but was dismissed for poor health; he was then taken in at the Salesian Oratory in Turin, where he met Don Bosco and witnessed his holy death. At 18 he returned to his diocese, serving as sacristan of the cathedral at Tortona, and was able to complete his studies in the seminary; he was ordained priest in 1895.
Even as a cleric he founded the first festive oratory and laid the foundations of the “Little Work of Divine Providence” (v.), devoting himself entirely to the cause of the Church, the poor, the destitute and the needy. To this end he founded the Sons of Divine Providence, the Little Missionary Sisters of Charity, the Hermits of Divine Providence (blind and sighted), and the blind Sacramentine Sisters. In the Calabrian-Sicilian and Marsica earthquakes he worked tirelessly for the salvation of orphans. He twice visited Latin America (1921 and 1934), everywhere fostering initiatives of charity and education.
He was the founder and director of the Bollettino Ufficiale Mensile della Federazione tra le Associazioni del Clero in Italia, maintaining its direction until the last days of his life.
On 8 May 1915 he founded the first nucleus of Catholic Scouts adhering to the Corpo Nazionale, securing for them full religious freedom. The greatest and most constructive work of Msgr. Orione is the Federazione tra le Associazioni del Clero in Italia (F.A.C.I.), which he founded in Siena on 17 November 1916. Similar attempts had been made at Lucca, Turin, Bologna, Lecce and in Sicily. The most concrete achievements of this activity were the Cooperativa del Clero (founded in Rome on 10 July 1920), with its seat in Siena; the work carried out for the revision of clerical incomes; the International Secretariat; the defence of the clergy against excessive taxation; the clergy houses at Massa and Montecatini; the Fraternitas and the Charitas for the establishment of clergy houses (1931), later absorbed into the Istituto Fides, constituted in 1935.
A man of unshakable trust in Divine Providence, indefatigable and inexhaustible in his initiatives, immovable in the face of obstacles, he gave everything to his brothers in the Lord. He wrote: *A Manual of Italian Reading* (Siena 1907); *Italian Grammar* (ibid. 1910); *Key to O.’s Italian Grammar* (ibid. 1911); *Richiami all’Opera e alle istituzioni della Federazione tra le associazioni del clero in Italia nel primo ventennio della sua fondazione* (Sept. 1936; ibid. 1936). He produced an edition of selected *Discourses of St. Bernardino of Siena* (ibid. 1920; English trans. by H. J. Rolins, ibid. 1920). He also wrote a manual of gymnastic games (ibid. 1913), other manuals for scouts, works for the theatre, pamphlets and articles in various journals. His works were published by the Tipografia Sociale, another of his creations, which he directed for many years.