PII OPERAI CATECHISTI RURALI
Congregation whose purpose is the religious assistance in rural areas and the establishment of agricultural schools for the sons of peasants. It resulted from the union of the Congregation of the Pii Operai with that of the Catechisti Rurali by decree of the Sacred Congregation of Religious (28 June 1943).
In 1860 the Venerable Carlo Carafa, with some companions, founded in Naples, at the church of S. Maria di tutti i beni, the Pii Operai, a society of secular priests living in community who dedicated themselves to the explanation of Christian doctrine, popular missions, and ecclesiastical ministry in general. Forced to leave their first seat, Carafa and his companions in 1865 established a house at S. Maria dei Monti, outside Naples, where they set up the novitiate. During the founder’s lifetime, three houses were opened: at S. Maria di Monterotondo (Caserta), at S. Giorgio and S. Nicola in Naples, which became the generalate. Gregory XV approved the institute and its Constitutions drawn up by Carafa with the brief *Ex quo divina Maiestas* (21 Apr. 1621). In 1689 the Pii Operai opened a house in Rome at S. Balbina, ceded to them by the Vatican Chapter. In 1704 they moved to S. Lorenzo ai Monti near Macel de’ Corvi, and under Clement XI to S. Maria dei Monti, where they were entrusted with the direction of the College for catechumens and neophytes, and in 1730 they also founded the Academy of Liturgy. They also established another house in Trastevere, where they had built the church of S. Giuseppe alla Lungara to a design by Giuseppe Ruscari Sassi (1730). The Pii Operai did not take vows, observed great poverty, and practiced frequent fasting. They were governed by a prepositus generalis and four consultors elected by the General Chapter.
They distinguished themselves in Naples during the plague of 1653, in which almost all the members perished while assisting the plague-stricken. They gained a certain prominence in the Quietist controversy, having formed among themselves a cenacle in which the prepositus generalis Fr. A. de Torres was the most eminent figure and Fr. P. Gisolfi a prolific writer, “a typical example of composite Baroque religiosity.” In the last century the Roman community carried on a modest publishing activity, publishing among other things the acts of Pius IX.
The Congregation of the Pii Operai, which had always remained limited to the aforementioned houses in Naples and Rome, in recent times was reduced to the generalate at S. Nicola; but for lack of subjects even this was about to close, when in 1928 at Montaldo Uffugo (Cosenza) Msgr. Gaetano Mauro founded a new institute dedicated to the care of the most abandoned souls in the countryside and rural towns with works suited to modern times. In 1930 the institute became a diocesan institution with the approval of the bishop, and in 1943, by decree of the Holy See, the old and the new institutes were merged into one, since their purpose was identical. Modern times have brought new ideas and new means of apostolate, and the Institute today is devoted to restoring to the peasant the serene joy of rural life, to stemming the scourge of urbanization, and to educating young country people to appreciate the nobility of agricultural labor. To this end it holds missions among peasants living far from parishes, opens agricultural colonies and educational institutes. It now has 6 houses and about thirty religious.