The Novitiates of the Neapolitan Province
How many times has the Neapolitan Province changed the location of its novitiate? Compared to the Roman Province and the other historic Italian provinces, the Neapolitan Province is the one that has changed the location of its novitiate the fewest times, despite enduring the vicissitudes stemming from the Unification of Italy.
First Half of the Nineteenth Century
The Society of Jesus was officially reconstituted in 1814, by the will of Pius VII with the bull Sollecitudo Omnium. However, in the territories of the Kingdom of Naples and in Sicily, it had already been readmitted from the early years of the nineteenth century. The first location of the novitiate of the Neapolitan Province was in Naples, in the Profess House, specifically at the Gesù Nuovo, for several decades. The novitiate was then transferred to Sorrento from 1835 to 1849, before returning to Naples in 1850. Archival sources, such as the historiae domus, recount the history of the novitiate during this period.
Second Half of the Nineteenth Century
The novitiate remained in Naples until the Unification of Italy, when the historic provinces lost all their assets.
During the years of dispersion—termed as such because the Jesuits were dispersed into neighbouring provinces or abroad—the Jesuits of the Neapolitan Province entered the novitiate of the Roman Province. It was the only province to preserve its assets, as the Papal States continued to exist until 20 September 1870.
Unfortunately, at the archival level, almost nothing survives of the Neapolitan Province’s novitiates until the 1880s, as many provincial records were sequestered or lost with the Unification of Italy.
In those years, the Neapolitan Province gradually reorganised itself and managed to bring the novitiate back to Naples. This time not in the city centre but at the Vomero, in Villa Melecrinis. The villa was the result of a donation from the family of Fr Giorgio Melecrinis, a Jesuit of the Province. With the loss of properties, the provinces were able to reopen residences and colleges thanks to donations from faithful and benefactors. Regrettably, it no longer exists today, having been demolished during the urban transformation of the Vomero in the 1950s.
The novitiate, initially dedicated to St Joseph, was opened at the end of 1877. It welcomed not only numerous Jesuits from the Neapolitan Province but also many from the Roman Province, which from 1870 had lost its novitiate along with its other residences and had no novitiate of its own until 1882.
From the Early Twentieth Century to the formation of the Italian Province
Villa Melecrinis remained the location of the novitiate until 1935, when the Province transferred the house of first probation to Castello Giusso in Vico Equense. The photograph featured in today’s episode depicts precisely this novitiate, which over time hosted first a college and then the apostolic school of the Neapolitan Province.
Vico Equense served as the location of the novitiate for the remainder of the Neapolitan Province’s history. Indeed, it remained active until 1971. From the following year, the Neapolitan Province closed its novitiate; aspiring Jesuits thereafter entered at Ciampino, then at Frascati, and from 1984 at Genoa, where the novitiate of the EUM Province is still located today.
Maria Macchi
