ORLANDI, NAZARENO. - Priest, journalist, organizer, b. in Siena on 7 Feb. 1871, d. there on 7 Aug. 1945. While still a young priest, on 5 June 1897 he founded Il popolo di Siena (a Catholic weekly for the province of Siena), which he directed for 26 years, and in Jan. 1919 he strengthened L'amico del clero, transforming it from the diocesan organ of Vicenza, where it had arisen, into the official monthly bulletin of the Federation of the Associations of the Clergy in Italy, and he retained its direction until the last days of his life.
On 8 May 1915 he founded the first nucleus of the Catholic Scouts adhering to the national Corps, with the guarantee that full religious freedom would be left to them. Mons. O.'s greatest and most constructive work is the Federation of the Associations of the Clergy in Italy (F. A. C. I.), which he founded in Siena on 17 Nov. 1916. Attempts of this kind had been made in Lucca, Turin, Bologna, Lecce and in Sicily. The most concrete achievements of this activity were the Clergy Cooperative (founded in Rome on 10 July 1920), with its seat in Siena, the action carried out for the revision of the congrue, the International Secretariat, the defense of the clergy against the enormous burden of taxes, the houses for the clergy of Massa and Montecatini, the Fraternitas, the Charitas for the establishment of houses for the clergy (1931), later absorbed by the E. M. Institute Fides, established in 1935. A man of unshakable trust in Divine Providence, inexhaustible and inexhaustibly resourceful 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 the Discorsi of St. Bernardino of Siena, selected (ibid. 1920; English trans. by H. J. Rolins, ibid. 1920). He also wrote a manual of Giuochi ginnastici (ibid. 1913), other manuals for scouts, works for the theater, pamphlets and articles in various reviews. His works were published by the Tipografia sociale, another of his creations, whose direction he retained for many years.
Bibliography2 works
Pietro Palazzini