This paper aims at bringing to light the experience of the Jesuit exile and Suppression from within, through José Pignatelli’s correspondence and personal experience.
Pignatelli (1737-1811) has been defined the ‘restorer’ of the Society of Jesus, after the Suppression of the Order in 1773. His letters with ex-Jesuits and political and religious personalities of the late 18th-early 19th-century Italy reveal his deep involvement in the process of Restoration of the Society in the Italian Peninsula, and the troubled feelings of the ex-Jesuits during the Suppression. From 1759, the Jesuits were expelled from Portugal, Spain and France. In 1767, Pignatelli was exiled with the Spanish Jesuits and headed to Italy.
In Bologna, for about twenty-five years he committed to assist and maintain contacts with his dispersed Jesuit brothers in distress. He became the most important leading figure for the ex-Jesuits of the Italian Peninsula, and finally managed to obtain the favour of the Duchy of Parma, where Duke Ferdinand was keen to re-establish the Society in his territory. A Jesuit noviciate was eventually opened in Colorno, and Pignatelli became the novice master. He was later appointed Jesuit Provincial in Italy. He died three years before the Restoration of the Society of Jesus (1814, Pius VI), after having spent his life in the hope of a Jesuit re-birth.
Pignatelli’s letters show how he created a ‘virtual community’ comprising the ex-Jesuits of the Italian Peninsula, despite their physical separation from an actual Jesuit community.
Prison/Exile: Controlled Spaces in Early Modern Europe 