PICCOLA MISSIONE PER I SORDOMUTI. - Religious congregation founded in Bologna in 1890 by the priest brothers Giuseppe and Cesare Gualandi and approved by the Holy See in 1913.
It consists of priests and lay brothers, devoted to the instruction of deaf-mutes, and of pious sisters for deaf-mute women, teaching them an art or trade suited to their condition and abilities. But since, among the various aspects of the misfortune affecting these disabled persons, the moral-religious one is the most pitiable, because, being of sound mind, they are capable of doing evil and cannot free themselves from fatal ruin without solid spiritual formation, all the work of the P. m. per i s. is directed toward this education. It has houses in Roma, Bologna, Firenze, Teramo, Giulianova, and in the provincial Institutes of Venezia and Melfetta.
