When he left for Austria with Pio Brunone Lanteri, Father Nicholas Diessbach had already helped the Turin Amicizia (Christian Friends) take its initial steps. Finding good prospects for the apostolate in Vienna, he decided to stay there. From this base, he would direct his entire plan to combat impiety. Pio Brunone Lanteri returned to Piedmont alone. Arriving in Turin, he hastened to finish the last state of his preparation for the priesthood. Only ordination would enable him to dedicate himself to Amicizia body and soul. He was ordained a priest by Archbishop Costa di Arignano on May 25, 1782, in Turin’s Immaculate Conception Church. He completed his theology course two months later with excellent grades.
The new priest’s personality, intelligence and culture were already known in Turin. He received many tempting offers. These would have jeopardized Amicizia’s existence if accepted. The Duke of Modena wanted to entrust him with educating his son and to direct the organization and development of his ducal library. This was a great temptation, especially for a man who wanted to accomplish great things. It is easy to imagine the sophistries the devil must have employed to divert Father Lanteri from his mission. Educating the Duke’s son would give him access to a powerful lord capable of helping his work. Couldn’t Providence use the Duke’s prestige and library to accomplish Amicizia’s practical goal, the selection of good books?
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On the other hand, God seemed to have entrusted Father Lanteri with the beginnings of a great apostolate. He knew that he had to do everything with total dedication. True, Fathers Dreissbach’s and Lanteri’s plans were magnificent, but they were still only plans. They did not yet have the attraction and certainty of already consolidated and fully developed works. To carry out those plans, Father Lanteri had to renounce a brilliant career and tread the path of sacrifice. Father Lanteri resisted these temptations and rejected the offers. Amicizia was his mission, to which he would give himself entirely.
The history of Turin Amicizia’s early days is little known. It replaced the Pious Association for the Press, which Father Diessbach had founded to spread wholesome literature. Although the two groups had the same immediate practical objective, their difference was profound. The Pious Association brought together Catholics to carry out a common work. The Amicizia was a school of formation. Its apostolate was to generate the fruit of the spiritual life of its members. There was probably a gradual transition from one to the other. Presumably, Father Diessbach mentored some of the Pious Association’s collaborators who showed a greater aptitude for the new life fully dedicated to the Church, which he taught to his Amicizia members.
Canon G. D. Giulio and Count Robbio di San Raffaele were among the first to pass to the new society. Father Diessbach’s decision to remain in Vienna did not hinder the consolidation of the work. Luigi Virginio and Lanteri were ready to direct it according to Father Diessbach’s guidelines. Father Virginio took over the direction of the sodality, and Father Lanteri was entrusted with the secretariat and the code that enabled the colonies to correspond.
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The necessary secrecy may be the reason why there is so little documentation that could provide precise knowledge of Amicizia’s early phase. However, Les Lois de l’Amitié Chrétienne (The Laws of Christian Friendship) provides a guide to understanding the movement. It was likely written after the organic development of the first Christian Friends group. Father Diessbach conceived the association’s operation gradually as it took shape. This would explain the existence of the Amiche Cristiane as a distinct entity at that period.
In his often-cited and excellent book, Father Candido Bona studies two documents of the latter organization he found during his research. One of them, later titled Memorie dell’Amicizia C[ristiana] F[eminina] di Milano—an obvious mistake as it was the Turin group—relates the association’s activities from its inception until 1783. The other, titled Aux Amies Chrétiennes unies dans le Sacré Coeur de Jésus (To the Christian Friends United in the Sacred Heart of Jesus), is a repository of spiritual advice to the ladies who made up the group.
One must remember that Les Lois de l’Amitié Chrétienne prescribed twelve members for each Amicizia, six of whom were to be women. The active participation of women in an organized apostolate, especially with male members, was a novelty. Hence, according to Father Diessbach’s thinking, training them separately before establishing Amicizia was advisable. Father Luigi Virginio and Father Lanteri took charge of the formation of these pious ladies, instilling in them the spirit that was to reign in Amicizia.
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Unfortunately, the names of the first participants are unknown. As they probably belonged to the initial group, Father Bona searched Venerable Lanteri’s papers to find out which ladies collaborated the most with his apostolate. Here we will only register, among the proactive souls of this period, the names of Delfina Piossasco di Rivalba, Countess della Margarita, and Gabriella Galleani d’Agliano, respectively grandmother and mother of Count Solaro della Margarita, the famous Piedmontese politician. Gabriella Galleani d’Agliano was the sister of Cesare Renato d’Agliano, one of Amicizia’s future members who, as we shall see, played a prominent role in the sodality’s reaction against the religious persecution that Napoleon would inflict upon them after the French Revolution.
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