THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Waldensian historical society, an institution founded in 1889. From the college many young men have gone forth, entering various branches of activity. Lawyers, physicians, professors, business men, and officers in the army and the navy may be found in many cities of Italy who have had their early training and inspiration in that institution.
The valleys are also the center of a great philanthropic activity. There are two general hospitals, one at Pomaretto, in the Val San Martino, and a larger one in Torre Pellice, toward whose erection even Czar Alexander I. contributed. The orphanage for girls in Torre Pellice can accommodate forty-five inmates, and in Luserna San Giovanni is the only home for incurables in Italy. It was founded some twenty years ago, and has accommo-
dations for fifty patients. The condi-
3. Philan- tion of admission is that the patients
thropic have been refused by other hospitals.
Work and The institution makes no distinction
Statistics. of nationality or creed, and patients
come even from Switzerland or from Sicily. The orphanage for boys in Turin has thirty inmates, the homes for the aged in San Germano and San Giovanni contain some fifty people, and the deaconesses’ institute in Turin, the aim of which is to train nurses for hospitals and kindred institutions, has a good number of pupils. All these institutions are partially endowed and supported by the voluntary contributions of the Waldenses. The Waldensian valleys, which form the first of the seven districts into which the whole Waldensian Church is divided, have seventeen churches with nineteen pastors: Prali, Rodoretto, Massello, Perrero-Maniglia, Villasecca, Pomaretto, San Germano, Pramollo, Prarostino, Pinerolo, Toriyo, Luserna San Giovanni, Torre Pellice, Villar Pellice, Bobbio Pellice, Roria, and Angrogna. The latest statistics for the valleys give 19 pastors, 190 teachers, 3,932 children in the Sunday-schools, 12,213 church-members, and 96,400 frances as church contributions. French is spoken as well as Italian by the Waldenses, and two weekly papers are published in Torre Pellice, L’ cho des vallées and L’ Avrisatore alpino. In the Italian Parliament one of the members is a Waldensian.
On account of the knowledge of French which even the less-educated Waldenses possess, it was natural, after the narrow limits of their valleys had been thrown open by the act of 1848, that they should make their way toward France in order to
better their economical conditions. 4. Walden- Very few settled in the great cities of sian Emi- Italy, but France, being a most regration to sourceful country, attracted them.
France. Thousands of Waldenses are to be
found in Marseilles, Toulon, Cannes, Nice, and even in Paris. Many a Waldensian who has been a waiter in fashionable restaurants and hotels in those cities is now at the head of important business firms. In order to keep together and help each other, these ‘‘ children of the valleys” have organized, in all those cities, societies called Unions vaudoises, which celebrate two dates every year as most important, Feb. 17, commemorating the act of emancipation, and Aug. 16, the departure of their
forefathers, in 1689, from Praugins for their native valleys. In Marseilles the Waldenses attend the French Reformed churches; in Nice, there is a strong Waldensian church with a pastor from the valleys. :
It was, however, across the ocean that the Waldenses had to develop the energies of their race and build up strong colonies. In 1859, through the interest of Frederick Henry Pendleton, chaplain of the British embassy in Montevideo, a group of Waldensian families settled in Uruguay and founded Colonia Valdense. They were followed by others, year after year, so that there are now no less thanseven regularly organized churches, five in Uruguay and two in Argentina, viz.: Colonia Valdense, Cosmopolita, Artilleros, Belgrano, Lavalle San Salvador, Tarariras-Riachuelo, and Iris. The latest statistics for the seven colonies give 7 pastors, 1,716 church-members, 668 Sunday-school children, and 42,242 francs as church contributions. A college,
called Liceo Valdense, has been founded
5. The in Colonia Valdense, with forty-two
Waldenses students, and the institution is helped in North financially by the government of Uruand South guay. Many groups of Waldenses,
America. amounting altogether to more than
180 families, are scattered throughout Argentina and Uruguay, and are visited periodically by the pastors. A monthly paper in Spanish, La Union valdense, is published to keep the people together. In the United States there are three colonies distinctly Waldensian: at Wolf Ridge, near Gainesville, Tex., with some ten families; at Valdese, N. C., founded in 1891, with 42 families and over 200 people; and at Monett, Mo., with 25 families, founded in 1886. Through hard work and perseverance these farmers are now in prosperous circumstances. They have joined the Presbyterian Church, although the services in the churches at Valdese and Monett are still held in French. Groups of Waldensian families are to be found in Chicago, California, and elsewhere, and there are four families at Hawthorne, near Ottawa, Canada. In New York, where there are no less than 350 of them, mostly young men and young women, they have organized Le Groupe vaudois and meet regularly for their services on Sunday afternoons. They have a pastor from their valleys. There are, altogether, no less than 12,000 Waldenses outside of the valleys of Piedmont.
General Beckwith is to be considered the promoter of the missionary work of the Waldenses. Having long been convinced that the Church of the valleys was the divinely predestined instrument for giving the Gospel to Italy, as soon as the political
restrictions that had been so long im-
6. Mission- posed on the Waldenses were removed, ary Work he wrote to the “ Table,” the governin Italy. ing board of the Church, emphatically urging them to undertake active mis-
sionary work. The first step taken by the Waldenses in this new field was to erect a beautiful church in Turin in 1853, having secured permission to build through Count Cavour, who was their friend. The clerical party strongly opposed such a grant, and it was for the Waldenses the first vic-