Waiters and service personnel

Can one study the work of lay people using the sources of a religious order? Moreover, what we can discover about their days, hours and pay?

We have previously seen that various documents in our archives shed light on the professions and trades in past centuries, also bearing witness to the emergence of new jobs linked to the development of technology, as in the case of photography.

Today we take a closer look at the work carried out by lay staff for the Society of Jesus, especially in the boarding schools.

Jesuits and Household Assignments

These personnel were not in charge of cleaning the Jesuits’ personal spaces. In fact, every Jesuit, since the time of St Ignatius, has been responsible for the order and cleanliness of his own room and belongings. They also take turns at the table, even today. The cleaning of the common areas, on the other hand, was left to the brothers. In the course of time, due to the decline in vocations, many more lay people work in the residences and colleges, often also holding positions once the preserve of Jesuits alone. In the kitchens of the residences today, there are no longer brothers but workers who also take care of the cleaning of the common areas, the upkeep of the building and the daily chores. Today even the teaching staff of the Jesuit schools is almost exclusively made up of laymen and laywomen; most of the provincial archivists are also laymen.

Brother coadjutors and attendants

Women also worked for the Jesuits, in different roles: as suppliers of raw materials or as tailors or embroiderers. The records of the income and expenditure of the communities help researchers to quantify the pay andhttps://archives.jesuits-eum.org/women-s-work/ the time women and men remained in the service of the Jesuits. We also know that Christmas was an occasion to give suppliers and professionals a gift.

Although, as mentioned in several instalments, many laborious and practical jobs were carried out by the Jesuit brothers, in many communities there were also lay staff who were needed to carry out a large amount of work and were often entrusted with looking after some of the more affluent boarders. This was the case of Francesco di Borbone, for example: a student at the Convitto dei Nobili in Rome who had a personal valet. In the 19th century, in fact, it was essential to hire external staff to ensure the organisation of the boarding schools: the cleaning of the refectories, the pupils’ dormitories and their study rooms, the washing of linen, uniforms and everyday objects for hundreds of pupils.

Who was hired to work in the boarding schools? Sources indicate the presence of caretakers and maids often referred to in catalogues as ‘familiares’, the Latin term meaning precisely the person who worked in a house, the famille, a term that is now obsolete. He worked and lived in the dwelling where he served.

Reconstructing the biography of the Jesuits, who lived between the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, one discovers that, among their various apostolates, they were often in charge of the catechesis of both the coadjutor brothers and the house staff.

While, however, the brothers were members of the community to all intents and purposes – they took vows and for this reason are also referred to as consecrated laymen – the caretakers were not bound to the Company by any vow but only by a salary bond. In the case of the boarding school, they also had accommodation available and lived the daily life of the school community.

The source

Today’s episode stems from the reorganisation of the series of registers of the Neapolitan Province. One of these collects precisely the general customs in force in the colleges of the Company, but there are also those observed in the novitiate in Naples, Sorrento and in the college of the nobles of the Province.

The rules for the caretakers

In the volume of customs, there is a paragraph entitled ‘Covenant with the caretakers’ where the rules to which the staff were subjected are listed. From this text, we discover that they were not allowed to accept gratuities, neither from boarders nor from outsiders. The paragraphs on board and lodging are worth quoting, with information on the only gratuities allowed and the assistance in case of illness guaranteed to the hired staff:

For breakfast, they will have only bread. At lunch, they will have abundant soup and a portion commonly of boiled meat set by the Superior, in sufficient quantity, as for the fathers and brothers. From the larder they will have bread to their heart’s content and a plate of table leftovers, if there are any, without having to cook anything else in case they are missing in whole or in part. They shall have no fruit, except for a few leftovers cut and cleaned. They shall have a bottle of wine similar to that which our [meaning fathers and brothers] use. For dinner, they will have soup and salad. […] The boarding school will provide them with lodgings with furniture and a bed with linen, which will be washed at the boarding school’s expense, but all the clothing and bed linen will be the responsibility of the servants, who will have to have the linen and clothing washed, sewn and ironed at their own expense. […] Although all clothing is the responsibility of the house cleaners, for a certain uniformity and decency of the college, a blue cloth overcoat will be made for each of them, to be worn only when they go walking with the dormitories. […] In case of sickness, they will be cared for the boarding school nurse will provide doctor and surgeon but medicines provided at the expense of the sick person. […] The boarding school will give them a gratuity for Christmas and August, i.e. 1.50 lire each, provided they have served for three months.

The paragraph on the recruitment of staff is also interesting:

Before entering into service, each will do a month’s probation, pending which they will be mutually at liberty not to accept the service of the boarding school and to leave it on any day, without any formality or time, and excluding any claim to remuneration. In such a case, the boarding school will owe them the salary for only those probationary days that will have elapsed, even if the resignation comes from the will of the Superiors.

Boarding School Life

The source tells us a lot about the daily life of the boarding school, both looking at the pupils and at the work of the waiters. Here are some of the tasks that the dormitory house cleaners had to perform every day:

Let them meet all the needs of the dormitory and serve everyone equally without partiality […]. Let them not be short of water in the morning for washing […]. Let them tidy up the beds in good time, turning and turning the mattresses, and dust everything well, and at the appointed time let each one take breakfast to his dormitory and take the leftovers back to the larder. Let them clean the lamps every day, especially those that must burn all night; and let the lamps be thin to avoid smoke, and let them always bring the lamp into the dormitories before nightfall. They shall comb those boarders indicated to them by the Fr. Minister, always keeping their combs well cleaned and the anointed ones separate from the others. […] Each footman shall cleanly set the table in his dormitory and clear it after the night.

The villa day

The term ‘villa’ was used to indicate the day of the holiday, which was observed every week in addition to Sunday in the college but also in the other residences of the Company. In the novitiates, for example, it fell on a Thursday, but could vary from residence to residence and from province to province. The abstention of classes concerned the boarders who went for walks and engaged in recreational activities, but not the waiters who had a lot of work to do. Their day at the villa is described below:

At 10 a.m. rising for all the orderlies [it must be considered, however, that the way of indicating the time, in the past, might have been different from ours, adjusted according to sunrise and sunset for example] as soon as they were dressed they tidied their beds. At 10.30 in the chapel Prayer in common, then immediately to fetch water, clean their shoes: entering the dormitory when the boarders wake up. At 11 o’clock immediately, open the shutters of the windows, bring back the lamps, arrange the chairs, and clean the table. […] as the boarders are being served in the lavender, comb them with manner and diligence, especially the smallest and neediest, then clean their clothes, fix their ties, in the presence of the Prefect and in silence. At 11.30 in chapel, Mass and meditation.

At 12 noon in the dormitory. Immediately open all the windows and the bedchambers, empty the vases and clean them well and immediately put them back in their respective places, turn them inside out, make the beds […]. When the boarders have left, they are to take the leftovers of their breakfast immediately to the dispensary, and from him they are to receive their own breakfast, after which they are to return to their dormitory to sweep the hall and half of the dressing rooms, clean their shoes and dust the study room. When they return, the boarders are to be ready for what is needed and they are to take their shoes back to clean them for the day’s walk.

The work of the footmen continues with various tasks, we report here on the final part of the day at the villa:

From the Fr. Minister to fetch the cutlery and before the sign of supper they will go with the lamp to their rooms to accompany the boarders to the refectory; and so they will do after supper. They shall clean and return the cutlery, fold the tablecloths, wash and turn the glasses. Towards the end of the prayers of the boarders, they will be in the dormitory, so that they may attend them, washing their feet one by one, and they will cut off their lamps so that they do not give off a bad smell. At 2.45 they dine in their refectory with the lesson: then to the chapel to recite the prayers in common, then to rest in silence.

The photograph accompanying today’s in-depth study was taken in the Collegio dei Nobili at Villa Mondragone, during a banquet to celebrate the anniversary of the College’s foundation, together with the former pupils.

Maria Macchi