The age-old issue of heating: complaints in the Brescia area.

The issue of heating in a community is a theme that recurs several times in the diaries of a home or boarding school, arousing various reactions… some of them quite discordant.

It is 1904 in Brescia, in the Arici College, founded in 1882 by Giuseppe Tovini and passed to the Veneto Milanese Province of the Society of Jesus after a few years.

The winter, which was already quite cold in the Brescia area, had been made even harsher by a snowfall at the beginning of March, what the writer of the home diary – the source that gives us this story today – did not hesitate to call a ‘solemn snowfall’. In those days, the diarist notes some remarks made during a community meeting by Fr. Minister, from which it can be seen that the issue of heating…also warmed minds.

Life in the community may not always be easy, and it is even more difficult to satisfy all the brothers in matters of food and heating.

In the community of Brescia, the minister had to deal with the latter during that cold winter of 1904: in particular the question of means for heating the house.

The choice was between the traditional and trustworthy stove and the modern radiator; the episode reported in the diary highlights the not easy role of the Fr Minister.

The heater, the diarist immediately specifies, ‘is not as cheap as people think, because if you want it to work well, it consumes as much or a little less fuel than many stoves together […]’.

The minister, for his part, does not fail to praise the temperament of the Veneto Jesuits:

“It can be said that a good half and more of the Venetian Fathers don’t give a damn about stoves and heaters, except precisely in cases of exceptional cold or prolonged study at the table, so one half of the stoves would ordinarily not be lit.”

He then goes into the casus belli – or rather the casus frigi – of the question:

“the heater is an unceasing source of incessant murmuring against the Fr. Minister and against the poor martyr who acts as stoker. Thus, for example, those who are in the rooms far from the heating centre always have to cry out against the minister’s avarice and miserliness, claiming that it is not enough for them to light well twice a day and make two strong additions of fuel.

The others then, who are close to said heating centre and indeed have the chimney flue at the wall, cry out if more is lit.”

And again:

“When in February and March the outside temperature starts to be 8, 9, 10 and 11 degrees above zero in the morning at around 7 or 8 o’clock, it seems an insult to Divine Providence to set fire to the communal heater just for the use and benefit of some unfortunate person who would like a fire in his room even in July.

The photo shows some Jesuits with the boarders, on a trip to the nearby mountains near Brescia, after a “solemn snowfall” and the refectory of the College; as can be seen from the photo, the spaces in the College were quite large.

This anecdote also highlights the degree of progress demonstrated by the Veneto-Milanese Province: in the same years, the Residenza del Gesù in Rome was not heated. In fact, the issue was only raised and addressed 25 years later, compared to the ‘Arici’ in Brescia, during the house consultations, when it became necessary to equip the house with stoves due to numerous complaints.

Let us reassure readers: today, all of the Compagnia’s residences boast heating systems and installations, and the differences over temperatures have been overcome.

Maria Macchi