The Opera Pia dei Poveri Mendicanti was a civic welfare institutional service created in Bologna, Italy, in the 16th century by a group of ruling patricians to care for sick and poor people. The service included taking control of hostels, infirmaries, and foundling homes, as well as orphanages, which were initially controlled by confraternities. It represented the government taking control of these privately funded institutions. The reason the ruling elites decided to do this is because they believed they could provide more help than the confraternities. The plan was to ameliorate the poor through discipline, education, and by finding them sufficient work; thus, helping the people escape their perpetual poverty in a modern sense.
Read more about Opera Pia Dei Poveri Mendicanti: Creation, Membership, Objective of The Organization, Significance, Types of Organizations Created, Problems and Controversy
Famous quotes containing the word opera:
“I have witnessed, and greatly enjoyed, the first act of everything which Wagner created, but the effect on me has always been so powerful that one act was quite sufficient; whenever I have witnessed two acts I have gone away physically exhausted; and whenever I have ventured an entire opera the result has been the next thing to suicide.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)