PIA SOCIETÀ TORINESE DI SAN GIUSEPPE. - It was founded in Turin on March 19, 1873, by the Servant of God Fr. Leonardo Murialdo, to provide Christian education, professional and civic training for poor and abandoned youth under the protection of St. Joseph. Fr. Giulio Costantino and Eugenio Reffo were his first able collaborators in this noble undertaking, which later developed into schools, oratories, agricultural and vocational schools, literary and technical institutes, family homes, after-school programs, boarding schools and semi-boarding schools, parishes, and missions, along with various social, cultural, recreational, and especially religious works in the most populous centers.
From Turin, the Congregation expanded to Rivoli, Pinerolo, Vignone, Sommariva del Bosco, Pocapaglia, Milan, Bergamo, and Santa Margherita Ligure. From Piedmont, with the same program, it spread to Veneto and Emilia: Venice, Padua, Treviso, Oderzo, Conegliano, Vicenza, Montecchio Maggiore, Arcugnano, Thiene, Riva del Garda, Modena, Cesena—welcomed and appreciated by ecclesiastical and civil authorities, loved and supported by youth and the people.
In 1904, Pope Pius X called the Congregation to Rome in the Tiburtino district, a delicate and challenging area for social and religious apostolate, where it could expand its moral renewal program on a larger scale and with greater fruitfulness. From the capital, it extended to Bufalotta, Santa Marinella, Albano, Naples, San Giuseppe Vesuviano, Foggia, Lucera, Sezze, Seggezia, Dipignano, Avezzano, with various works always for the benefit of youth and the people. As a crowning achievement of its apostolic life, in 1904 the Congregation also took on a mission in Cyrenaica. Around Benghazi, it founded primary schools, vocational schools, an important agricultural school, and a much-frequented clinic for Arabs from the oases and desert, where, by healing the body, many souls of children and adults were saved. Later, the Josephite apostolate extended to Tripolitania, in the capital, at Sidi Mesri and Ain Zara.
In 1914, the Josephines crossed the ocean, moving from Brazil to Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, and the United States, carrying out the founder’s program in domestic missions and even among indigenous peoples, with flourishing and varied works for youth and the people. The General Curia was transferred from Turin to Rome in the Tiburtino district in 1918.