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452 BOOK REVIEWS SeverinoFabriani nel bicentenario delta nascita: ilsuo tempo e I'educazione dei sordomuti. Atti del Convegno di studi, Modena, l6-17ottobre, 1992. [Accademia Nazionale di Scienze e Arti: Serie di fondamenti e filosofía della física, Vol. 9·] (Modena: Istituto "Figlie délia Providenza." 1994. Pp. viii, 405. Paperback.) This hefty volume contains a series ofpapers presented at a studies congress in Modena, sponsored by the Daughters of Providence. The congress honored their founder, Severino Fabriani, on the 200th anniversary ofhis birth. Fabriani lived from 1792 until 1849, and distinguished himself not only by learning and personal holiness, but by his work in educating deaf children. Fabriani was a lifelong resident of the Duchy of Modena and lived through many of the political vicissitudes of die formation of the Italian state. He entered the diocesan seminary at the age of 14 and excelled in his studies. Beginning a year before his ordination, he taught physics in die seminary until his health broke down in 1820. He lost his own voice two years later, a misfortune which stimulated his interest in the education of speech-impaired and hearing-impaired people. He became director of a school for deaf girls in 1824, dedicating himself to what became his life's work. He was profoundly impressed with the possibilities of educating children who had largely been ignored or even considered insane! The remainder of his life (twenty-five years) was dedicated to strengthening his school's program and establishing the Daughters of Providence to carry on this important ministry in a professional and caring atmosphere . Among the distinguished visitors to his school was King Ludwig I of Bavaria. It is unfortunate that the keynote speaker, Alberto Vecchi (ofthe University of Padua), was not able to provide a manuscript of his address, entitled "Deafness and the Salvation ofthe Soul." AU other talks and proceedings are included in the volume. Some of the lectures are fairly narrow in their scope, focusing on Fabriani's spirituality, scholarship, and love of art. Readers with a particular interest in the ministry to the hearing-impaired will find special value in the second day's offerings. However, one specific paper may be of fairly broad interest. Giuseppe Orlandi of the Pontifical Lateran University presented a study of religious orders in the Diocese of Modena, covering the years 1770 through I860. This detailed and meticulously researched paper is divided into three parts, encompassing the last decades of the Ancien Regime, the Austrian and French occupations, and the restoration of the Este family, in the person of Francesco IV. Orlandi's command of archival sources is impressive, and his work fills fully 40% of the entire volume. Like religious orders all over Europe, Modena's male and female communities came under intense pressure during the Enlightenment. In many cases, BOOK REVIEWS 453 there were houses with substantial endowed wealth, but relatively few religious living in them. Spiritual and intellectual formationwas weak, and ministry was sometimes non-existent. Cases of outright immorality were quite rare (greatly outnumbered by examples of exemplary holiness), but the religious were generally perceived as useless and parasitical. Beginning about 1 770, officials in Modena set out to reduce the number of convents, give local bishops jurisdiction over the religious, and seize property seen as excessive. Within twenty-five years, the number ofwomen in religious communities dropped from 1601 to 864, and the men from 878 to 305. In the same period, the total population of Modena grew almost 20% . As the religious grew fewer and older, die State essentially subjugated the Church to itself. In 1805, die bishops urged the surviving nuns to convince the authorities of their social usefulness by taking charge of a school or a hospital, instead of merely following the monastic life. Napoleon's decree of 1810 secularized all orders which were not engaged in care of children, die poor, or the sick. During die Restoration period, convents were either strictly cloistered and contemplative, or dedicated to doing charitable work. Fabriani's congregation was one of the many groups founded for such a ministry. It is significant that Fabriani struggled for many years to get his Daughters of Providence accepted...

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