1694-1810
The Augustinian Hermits
As Flaminio Corner writes, the monastic complex situated in Venice - Dorsoduro n° 1323/A - in the area of St. Trovaso (Saints Gervasio and Protasio), owes its beginning to a legacy of Saint Donadoni (June 8 1688), who allowed nuns, Hermites of the Rule of St. Augustine to move from the narrowness of St. Marcuola (Ermagora and Fortunate), where they were present from 1486, to the aforesaid monastic complex of St. Trovaso. With the solemn presence of Patriarch Badoere, they moved to this new centre on August 5, 1694.
Inside the Church a headstone remembers the debt of gratitude.
The Hermit Nuns, hard-working and hospitable, live in the monastery of their ownership, in solitude and silence till the Napoleonic suppression on 12 May 1810.
According to their Rule they mould together moderation and austerity, care of the inner spiritual life and search of the common good, sincere fraternity and constant ascent towards God in a common life, with the wise equilibrium pointed out by St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo.
At first there are six of them, then they gradually increased to reach around 40.
From 1722 to 1729 lived between them Laura Corner- wife of the Doge Giovanni II Corner - lived with them because she wanted to retire in the monastery after her husband’s death. The place had been selected just for the rigour of its religious observance.
1810-1811
With the Napoleonic laws
the Monastery is suppressed and passes under the Demanio
On 19th January 1806 with the arrival of the French troops in the city, Venice and Veneto pass under Napoleon’s dominion.
On 28th July 1806, with the execution of a decree of the Italic Kingdom the suppression of convents is declared: monasteries, brotherhoods, convents… with the confiscation of their goods which go to the State.
The Community of Hermits of St. Augustine at St. Trovaso was suppressed with oral trial on 12th May 1810. At the moment of the suppression in the monastery there were 38 nuns: 29 professed, 10 converted and 2 novices
A momento della soppressione nel monastero vivevano 38 monache:
29 professe
10 converse
e 2 novizie
1811-1863
The Teachers of the Charity Schools of Cavanis
10th September 1811
The rising Female Ist. Cavanis leaves the monastery of the Holy Spirit and is transferred to the "Romite."
The first teachers, formed by the brothers Marcantonio and Antonangelo, Counts Cavanis and by Marchioness Magdalene of Canossa, devote their life to the education of the girls of the School,that they instruct in writing and counting and in educating as good Christians. Among these is Caterina Fabris, one of the first spiritual daughters of Cavanis and Canossa.
The Counts Cavanis
They live in their Palazzetto at Zattere, but they often go to the "Romite" to advise and animate the lay teachers who assist the girls of their School of Charity.
Born in Venice (Father Antonangelo January 16 1772 - March 12 1858 / Father Marcantonio May 19 1774 – October 11 1853), grew up in the ease of a rich noble family; they had occupied places of responsibility in the Ducal Chancellery, Antonangelo as secretary, Marcantonio as extraordinary notary. Called by the Lord to the priesthood, they willingly consecrated themselves, abdicating their bright political career, but also welcoming a new call: to devote themselves to poor boys and abandoned children who needed a family and education. They opened to them their Palazzetto at Zattere, and seeing the same need among the girls of the people, they started a school of charity consigning it to lay teachers.
Lady Magdalena, Marchioness of Canossa
On this day, 11th April 1812, Her Eminence the Marchioness Magdalene of Canossa reached the hospice, conducting with her two teachers educated in her orphanage in Verona for various months
(…) On that occasion she was taken to a room in our convent of the Augustinian ex-hermits in St. Trovaso, in which the Cavanis’ fathers had set up the female institute.This time the Marchioness was with us four months …"
(testimony by Caterina Fabris - Teacher of the Female Cavanis Ist. - Venice, 22 nd May 1860).
Born in Verona 1st March 1774, after a very difficult childhood because of the loss of her parents, she feels called to give her life to Christ, not in seclusion, but in the service of the outcasts, young illiterate girl and women of low moral living. In 1808, in the neighbourhood of S. Zeno in Verona, she begins the Canossian Institute welcoming the poorest girls to St. Joseph’s monastery. The life of Magdalene of Canossa reveals extraordinary mystical gifts, a charity without limits towards everybody, particularly the poorest people, and an unusual ability to look ahead, beyond her times and the Venetian frontiers. She died 10th April 1835 and was proclaimed a Saint by the Church on 2nd October 1988.
From 1863 until today:
Canossian Sisters
On July 2 1863 twelve Teachers of the Female School of Charity of the Servants of God Counts Cavanis and some Canossian Sisters become one single community. It is the start of a new historical moment.
Magdalene of Canossa in her Venetian standstill had written to a friend:
necessities are those that damage occasion to plan,
without then knowing the result of the projects.
(To Carolina Durini, 12 June 1813 )
In the 150 years passed by the Canossian nuns, with creativeness and passion, have given their life to a multiplicity of projects in educational circle:
03.01.1862 – 02.07.1963
Institution for poor young girls
01.10.1863 – 30.06.1974
Regal Teacher-Training College
01.10.1911 – 30.06.1923
Primary Council School
30.06.1923 it changes site and passes to S. Alvise Venezia
01.10.1923 – 30.07.1974
Institute for Teacher Training
01.09.1924 – 30.06.1981
Nursery school
01.10.1924 – 30.06.1968
Teacher Training School
it changes site and goes to Mestre – Viale Piave
01.10.1939 – 30.06.1989
Middle school
it changes site and goes to Mestre – Viale Piave
01.10.1960 – 30.06.1964
Professional Institute for foreign languages
The Last Decades
From the 1st October 1996 the Institute function as a University College and from the 1st September 2000 there also exists a service of reception for conferences, meetings and tourists.