ROSMINIANS

The Institute of Charity (IC, Official Catholic Directory #0300), as the Rosminians are officially entitled, was founded in 1828 at Calvario in Piedmont, Italy, by Rev. Antonio rosmini-serbati, at the instigation of St. Maddalena canossa. The ascetic principles expressed in Rosmini's Maxims of Christian Perfection (1830) determined the nature of his religious institute, which was approved as a congregation of exempt religious by Gregory XVI in 1839.

In 1832 the congregation, which had spread in northern Italy, became associated with the Sisters of Providence, founded by one of Rosmini's disciples and given papal approval in 1946. In 1835 Rosmini sent three priests to England, where they were later joined by other recruits. Notable among them was Luigi Gentili, a zealous and ascetic Roman, who exercised an important influence on the Catholic community in England from 1842 to 1848. He spent three years evangelizing the newly developed industrial towns of England, preaching missions of two to three weeks duration. In 1848 he went to preach in Dublin, Ireland, where he died of cholera. Among the innovations brought to England and Ireland by the Rosminians were the introduction of the clerical (or Roman) collar, the wearing of the cassock and religious habit in public, the preaching of missions, the practice of the Forty Hours, May devotions, the use of the scapular, the celebration of novenas, public processions, and the blessing of throats on the feast of St. Blaise (February 3).

Members of the Institute of Charity profess the three religious vows. They carry out such ministries by the need of their neighbor or the invitation of the pope or bishops. No work is preferred and none refused; work once undertaken may not be abandoned for a more attractive apostolate. The institute has no distinctive habit, only the cassock.

The Rosminians first arrived in the U.S. in 1877. In the U.S., the congregation is principally involved in parish ministries. The U.S. headquarters is in Peoria, IL. The generalate is in Rome.

Bibliography: c. j. emery, The Rosimians (London 1960). c. r. leetham, Rosmini (Baltimore 1958).

[c. r. leetham/eds.]