The Missions of the Former Provinces: not always exotic places

The former provinces, which merged into the Province of Italy in 1978, were responsible for several missions. Even in previous centuries, both the Society and other religious orders had missions, i.e. new geographical fronts for the Catholic apostolate.

The idea of mission refers to exotic, distant places, difficult to reach: such as Bahia, mission of the Turin Province, India, China, Japan ‘historical’ missions of the Society of Jesus and other religious orders. These were territories where the former Provinces had opened real missions, to which Jesuits and also religious from other Catholic Orders were sent. As the years went by, the dependent missions were transformed into independent provinces, sometimes also on the occasion of political independence or institutional crises of the nation where they were based.

The missions, however, do not necessarily correspond to territories so remote and distant from the ‘mother’ province.

Albania for example, now in the Euro-Mediterranean Province and since 1978 in the Province of Italy, had been a mission of the very near Wind-Milan Province, precisely because of its geographical proximity and the possibility of sending Jesuit missionaries there more easily.

Malta itself, also today an EUM territory and, before unification, an autonomous province, was until 1945 a dependent mission of the Sicilian Province. In this case too, the geographical criterion for the choice of the “mother” Province was reconfirmed: the Sicilian Province was the closest.

The mission offered possibilities and challenges to the province: if on the one hand it gave the Jesuits the opportunity to deal with new cultures, with different realities from the national one, on the other hand they had to deal with the language, often very difficult to learn but at the same time necessary to teach in the colleges or preach in the villages. The missionary fathers also had to consider a different economic system, which often did not guarantee the survival of works of the Company, and therefore evaluate possible economic problems.

Less exotic missions than China and Japan, such as those in Albania and Malta, while still posing linguistic difficulties – certainly fewer than in the Oriental languages – were able to solve economic and political ones, at least until the Second World War, especially in Albania where the religious were, in those years, subject to persecution and exile.

Even safer missions were those within the same Province, for example the Mission of Tuscany – a territory of the Roman Province. It may seem almost bizarre, yet in the second half of the 19th century a Mission was established that covered some cities in Tuscany.

The term ‘missions’ was also used to define all those initiatives of a local character that interested the population, especially the workers. Under the name of popular missions, interesting folders are in fact preserved in the archives concerning forms of apostolate of the Jesuits to the population, through retreats, participation in the world of work.

The mission in Tuscany was set up with the specific intent of assisting workers and labourers, in this sense therefore it was considered a mission land for the type of apostolate more than for the geographical territory. This was a new “missionary” front, due to the birth of the proletariat and the need to intercept workers and labourers in the territories where they were located.

There were several Jesuits who offered themselves over the centuries to be assigned by the Fr General to the missions, only some of these were actually sent far away, many were in fact destined for nearby missions, territories where the presence of the Society was to be consolidated or where it could offer tools for new social problems that were developing.

One of the lesser-known Works of the Company linked precisely to this form of apostolate towards the social classes on the margins is the Work of the Retreats of Perseverance, of which material is preserved in our archives, including the photos accompanying this article.

Maria Macchi