- A religious congregation founded in Bologna in 1890 by the priest-brothers GIUSEPPE and CESARE GUALANDI and approved by the Holy See in 1913.
It is composed of priests and lay brothers, consecrated to the instruction of the deaf-mute, and of pious sisters for deaf-mute women, teaching them a trade or craft suited to their condition and abilities. But since, among the various aspects of the misfortune that afflicts these impaired persons, the moral-religious aspect is the most pitiable—for, being of sound mind, they are capable of doing evil yet cannot free themselves from a fatal ruin without a solid spiritual formation—this education is the entire aim of the P. m. for the deaf-mute, which maintains houses in Rome, Bologna, Florence, Teramo, Giulianova, and in the provincial institutes of Venice and Molfetta.