decisively life-oriented. As for catechetical instruction, method, brevity and clarity are especially recommended.330

Some pages are particularly impressive — those dedicated to the celebration of the child as a being endowed with infinite potential, unlimited hope, worthy of the most delicate and religious respect, the “masterpiece issued from God's hands”, “king of the universe”,”son of God”, “our Brother”.331 Genuinely preventive ideas can be found later in two chapters dedicated to preventive and formative discipline, based on an authority which is to be both paternal and moral, and on supervision which is to be continuous, active and universal”.332 Consequently, the teacher-educator is held in very high esteem. His task is to act as a magistrate, father and apostle, as later on Dupanloup too would write.

A civil magistrate uses verdicts and assigns punishments, often without providing

corrections; the teacher-educator is a father who is free and disinterested as he teaches and

corrects and as he shares somehow the very spiritual fatherhood of God; the teacher-

educator is an apostle, almost a priest, and ever present in the life of a child who, in turn,

feels touched to the core of his spirit and heart, whenever there is reproach or praise,

whenever there is shame or honour, real joy in learning and working and having a positive

outcome”.333

4. Teresa Eustochio Verzeri and the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Teresa Eustochio Verzeri was a noble lady from Bergamo, foundress of the Congregation of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus dedicated to the instruction and education of girls of all classes of society. It was canonically approved in 1847.

This woman, endowed with keen intelligence, made an important theoretical contribution to education. She left us relevant writings, the fruit of a remarkable cultural formation she had received at home; they were written during her first time at the monastery at age 16 and, later on, from 1821 to 1823, then 1828 to 1831. They were the result of her personal intensive reading.

We can easily detect the impact on these writings of St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Theresa of Avila, and St. Francis de Sales. Theresa Verzeri was also well acquainted with the classic by Etienne Binet: Quel est le mailer gouvernement: Le rigoureux ou le doux? (Which is the better form of government: strict or gentle?).334To fully understand Verzeri's spiritual and educational orientation, one has to read her huge work divided into five parts: Dei doveri delle Figle del Sacro Cuore e dello spirito della loro religosa istituzione (Concerning the duties of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart and the spirit of their religious Institute), and especially the chapter: Cura delle giovani e modo di educarle (The care of young girls and how to educate them).335

The refined pedagogical spirituality and explicit preventive arrangements in her experience have been rightly emphasised.336 Two central statements define their scope — protective, constructive and

330 Ibid., 412-432.

331 Ibid., 433-445.

332 Ibid., 446-469.

333 Ibid., 470-495.

334 Cf. T.E. Verzeri, Dei doveri delle Figle del Sacro Cuore e dello spirito della loro religosa istituzione (Brescia:

Episcopal Press from the Pio Istituto 1844), vol 1, 412-414, 433.

335 (Brescia: Episcopal Press of the Pio Istituto 1844) [2 Vols], Vol 1, part 4, ch. 6, 410-444. The Lettere, 7 vols, are also

rich in spiritual and pedagogical content. Lettere. (Brescia: Pavoni Institute Press 1874-1878).

336 Always basic for Verzeri is the Vita della Serva di Dio Teresa Eustocchio Nob. Verzeri Fondatrice e Superiora

Generale delle Figlie del S. Cuore, Giacinto Dott. Arcangeli, 2 vols. (Brescia: Pavoni Institute Press 188)1, in 1946 the

second edition was reprinted, reviewed and corrected by the Author); Annali delle Figlie del Sacro Cuore di Gesù, 6

vols. (Rome: Artigianelli di S. Giuseppe Press 1899); Nel primo Centenario della nascita della Ven Verzeri. (Bergamo:

Istituto Italiano Arti Grafiche 1901); L. Dentella, Il conte conanico Giuseppe Benaglio e un secolo di storia

bergamasca, (Bergamo: Secomandi 1930); Una donna forte. La beata Teresa Eustocchio Verzeri Fondatrice delle