Parental consent to enter the Company
Entry into the novitiate, though a personal choice free from any compulsion, did in the past require the full consent of each candidate’s parents.
In the personal files of Jesuits, at least until the middle of the twentieth century, one almost always found a document in which the parents or one of them – only if the other spouse was deceased – declared that they would not hinder their son’s entry into the novitiate and that they did not need him in the family. This was a document formally requested and later kept in the Jesuit’s file.
This consent was not so taken for granted, indeed there are numerous cases, famous or not, of novices who went against their family’s wishes to enter religious life. If for many families, in fact, the choice to wear the habit, by their son (often more than one), was considered a blessing, sometimes even an honour and a privilege, this was not always the case for others.
Families with only one male child could thus see the hope of a patrilineal descent vanish, and thus also the survival of their surname, while for poorer families it meant two fewer hands in the fields, a precious contribution to the meagre household economy, or one less mouth to feed for those less suited to work in the fields. For these reasons, it was important to have the family’s consent.
S. Luigi Gonzaga ran away from parents who did not accept his choice to enter the novitiate, other Jesuits over the centuries were ‘asked back’ by their own families.
In the home diaries of novitiates, it is not uncommon to come across mothers and fathers clamouring for their son and, despite the boy’s protests and the fathers’ explanations, get them to take him home.
Consent was required by the Society of Jesus in writing and signed by both parents, even if they were illiterate or not very literate, in which case the letter is written by the parish priest and signed by the parents.
The handwritings of the novices’ parents’ signatures are very interesting, especially those of the women, who always sign with their birth surname and not their married surname.
The handwriting reveals not only an established or unestablished habit of writing, but also indications of old age and illness, for in many cases the stroke is unsteady and visibly shaky. For some Jesuits, the parents’ signature is expressed with a cross, because they were both illiterate.
In the case of Angelo Secchi, the parental consent signed by both parents made it possible to rewrite the Jesuit’s biography, proving that he was not an orphan – according to a long-standing historiographical tradition – but that his father was alive, albeit elderly or ill, as the shaky handwriting shows. The document can be seen in the virtual exhibition on Angelo Secchi.
In the photo accompanying today’s in-depth study, one can read the permission given by Stefano Colombo’s parents, in 1931, his mother’s signature “Invernizzi Elisa” and that of Fr Fausto Airoldi’s mother, who gives her permission on the back of the business card with her name “Teresa Malugani Airoldi”. In this case her husband’s surname is also given, as it is a business card.
Maria Macchi
