Hundred years of story of the vacation house

Hundred years of story of the vacation house

Fr. Luigi Caburlotto acquired Ca’ Rizzi Palace.
From 1872, Rizzi Palace became a propriety of the Religious Family. For about thirty years, the house was given for rent to families for profit in order to sustain the Religious Family.

On 31 March 1902, the Daughters of St. Joseph opened one community in that house, which is called Casa S. Giuseppe Community.

A house for spiritual retreats and formative meetings for the sisters of the institute.
With high attendance, especially during winter season, the house is reserved for spiritual retreats for the Sisters of the Institute, seminars or conferences and formations for the Superiors, workshops for professional sector, and of pastoral activity.

A house qualified for educative service

Since the opening of the community, Casa S. Giuseppe, Madre Eletta Moggio made sure that there would be an educative work, according to the Spirit of the Religious Family. It started a boarding for students of the Senior High School near the Novitiate.

Boarding house for the students

Casa S. Giuseppe accommodated a group of students from the cities of Veneto, and from Lombardy since its opening. They studied in the public school; Complementary (First year High School) and Normal (Senior High School), rarely and in exceptional way, they accommodated children in the primary school.
The community did not only take care of the house but even the accompaniment of their studies, the relationship with the families, moment of outing and relaxation, also spiritual formation, in collaboration with the Cavanis Fathers.

After school activities, technical/vocational school, festive oratory

An activity to support the families of the district and parochial activities after school, it was frequented by many children of the elementary school and the vocational/technical school was offered to the youth.
Learn the “work”, - it was needlework, tailoring, embroidery – which means to help the girls to acquire autonomy and love in maintaining the beauty of the house/family.
In this House, one Daughter of St. Joseph, Sr. Filomena Teresa Sebastiani (1896-1970) offered from 1955 -1965  many annual courses of tailoring, according to “Metodo Gioia” (Joyful Method) invented and patented by her (br 55378, a. 1955, art. 172): many youth from outside Venice came and were accommodated in the same house.
Some Sisters of the community, after the Second World War, participated in the life of the parish like catechesis and oratory with the children.

Nursery school

The district where Casa S. Giuseppe is put up is at the periphery compared to the big roads of tourism in the city, being the first reachable place for whoever enters in the city through buses or private vehicles.
A short distance from the house, there was an Infancy/Nursey School for toddlers, erected at the end of 1880. The Mothers thought well of opening an Infancy School that would give continuity to the activity and would respond, at the same time, to the request of the surrounding families.
The Nursery School probably started after the First World War when they abandoned the poor children in the district, where a daily meal was given.
Certainly, it was active in 1947 and that the children were involved in the life of the Community.

The house is open to different social instances

In different occasions, the community of Casa S. Giuseppe learnt to respond to social needs.

Boarding

In diverse time and situations, some elderly women were given hospitality and feeding for the poor. During the World War in 1915-1918, it constricted the community of the Educative Institute to find refuge away from Venice in order to save the students, in this house, and in the nearby community of “Terese.” A group of Daughters of St. Joseph would take turns and gave food to the poor with assiduous and generous service. The work in the kitchen would start at night and continued without rest in the afternoon until late at night to have hot food for hundreds of starving persons. A similar charitable work was done in 1943-1946.

Hospitality to refugees

The Daughters of St. Joseph of Caburlotto, were sensitive to the tragic situation of the enforced abandonment of their own land and house that were invested in the succeeding years of 1918 to the Istria. The rest of the Sisters would have to leave Pola with the orphan students of the Institute. They opened their house, particularly this, to hospitality of the refugees coming from Fiume for a necessary period to secure them with a dignified life situation. With this activity, they worked in collaboration and with the charitable initiative of the Church of Venice, with the system of solidarity actuated by the Municipality. Similarly, they offered first aid volunteers, in 1951-1952 to families who evacuated from Polesine because of the great flood of Po. In 1976, they received refugees of the earthquake from Friuli and at the later time, refugees from natural calamities in South Italy.