His home had a large library and he had access to the Fathers of the Church whom he always revered and would quote liberally in his future works. He had an astonishing knowledge of the Bible and by the time he was twenty he had read it twice. In his works Rosmini seems to be able to quote any part of the Bible at will. Doubtless he had an encyclopaedic and photographic memory. After he left grammar school his parents together with others decided not to send their sons away from the town but to have them taught privately. They were fortunate to know an inspirational teacher and priest, Don Pietro Orsi, who taught his pupils physics, mathematics and philosophy. As far as the latter was concerned it was love at first sight for Antonio. The philosophical text was by Karpe who was influenced by Kant. This motivated Antonio to become thoroughly acquainted with Hegel, Fichte and Schelling and later on he would criticise their theories and point out their short-comings. However at this time Lockeian empiricism held sway and so Rosmini was also reading Locke and Condillac. But it did not take long for him to find this dissatisfying also. His roots were in St Thomas and Augustine who he claimed as the two pillars on which his philosophy was based. He particularly revered St Augustine whom he believed was the greatest intellect in the history of the Church.1 In 1813, when Rosmini was 16 years old he wrote in his personal Diary ‘This year was for me a year of grace: God opened my mind to many things, and I knew that there was no other wisdom but in God’.

In 1813, when Rosmini was 16 years old he wrote in his personal Diary ‘This year was for me a year of grace: God opened my mind to many things, and I knew that there was no other wisdom but in God’ This experience was the immediate cause of Antonio’s vocation to the priesthood. His parents tried to dissuade him; after all, he was the elder son and it must have been clear to them that he would be far more capable than his brother to make a success of life and carry on the family name. But Antonio would not relent. Pier Modesto believing him cut out for an eminent ecclesiastical career tried to encourage him to study in Rome but Antonio was not interested in a glittering social position in life and chose Padua. Moreover his cousin and friends were there; and so it was at Padua University that Antonio studied for his priesthood. Not surprisingly he did well at his studies and obtained doctorates in Canon Law and Theology. His reading was undiminished and he persuaded his father to buy him a library which was going for a song in a bookshop in Padua. He was ordained priest at Chioggia in 1821. The way he celebrated Mass made a great impression on those who witnessed it. Among these was St John Bosco who could not recall seeing a priest say Mass with such devotion. It was his custom, whenever he could to read the Bible for an hour after Mass on his knees. He told his secretary Don Paoli in 1851 that he had read the entire Bible seven times by this means. After his ordination he withdrew to his home and began a period of prayer and meditation. The reason for this was that he realised that his youthful projects and activities which had not come to fruition had really come from himself rather than from God. This led him to formulate his principle of passivity namely, that he would wait on an indication from divine providence before undertaking any work, but that when God made his will known he would throw himself heart and soul into this work. This principle became the foundation of his spirituality and would also be the special charism of the Order he would found in 1828

Meanwhile in 1821 he had met St Maddalena di Canossa, a saintly woman who had founded the Daughters of Charity. She wished Antonio to found a male order, the Brothers of Charity, corresponding to hers. But he was hesitant as he was not sure that this was God’s will for him. There were further meetings and correspondence. One big difference between them was that Maddalena wished her proposed Order to be composed of brothers only whereas Antonio believed that priests should be included. It was on 10 December 1825 that he received a sudden vision of the plan for the Institute of Charity. ‘On this day I conceived instantly the plan of the Institute of Charity, on the occasion of a reply I wrote to Marchesa Maddalena di Canossa who from 1821 had encouraged me to found a religious Society of priests, who should bear the title Sons of Charity and correspond to the Daughters of Charity founded by her.’3 Rosmini later remarked to one of his brethren ‘The Constitutions of the Institute of Charity are not my work, they did not come from my mind. The plan of the Institute was given me, without my having studied it; I saw it one morning, presented to me instantaneously, wholly as you see it described in that book.’4 ’