LITTLE WORK OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. - Religious congregation, founded in Tortona by Fr. Luigi Orione. Approved by the bishop in 1903, it received the decree of praise from the Holy See in 1944. Its special purpose is to serve the Church, the pope and the poor.
Wholly and solely consecrated to the good of the humble and the disinherited, it carries out its apostolate of charity in shelters, hospitals, nurseries, orphanages, trade schools, vocational schools, agricultural colonies, workers' patronages, etc. Its spread was very rapid, and today the Congregation has hundreds of houses scattered in every part. At home, in the immediate postwar period, it multiplied its initiatives on behalf of small mutilated children and street boys, creating assistance centers in the neediest areas. Characteristic foundations of the P. O. of the D. P. are above all the houses called "Little Cottolengo of Fr. Orione," a name with which the people themselves loved to baptize the first charitable institutions opened by the Servant of God starting in 1915, for the handicapped, the mentally deficient, and those struck by the most acute forms of physical and moral ills. The Institute has numerous houses in Italy and some in Latin America and Eastern Europe.
The whole complex of the P. O. consists of five religious families: 1) The Sons of Divine Providence: currently over 800 priests with about a thousand clerics. 2) The Hermits, established in 1897, among whom should be noted the group of the blind who live in prayer and work at the hermitage of St. Alberto di Butrio. 3) The lay Coadjutors, who dress in civilian clothes but practice the common rule. 4) The Little Missionary Sisters of Charity, founded in 1915, dedicated to kitchen and wardrobe service in many houses of the P. O. of the D. P. They also have boarding schools, nurseries, workshops, and educational institutes. 5) The Sacramentine Sisters, who wear a special habit and live in prayer in their convent in Tortona.
Bibliography6 works
Giuseppe Zambarbieri