Teacher - Born in 1871 in San Giovanni
I have always liked children, just as I have always liked teaching. I am a Waldensian teacher, born of peasant parents, who were originally from Angrogna. I attended high school in Torre Pellice and got my teacher’s diploma at the Teachers College of Torino, In my church I heard so much talk of the work carried out by the Committee of Evangelization that I applied for a job.
It didn’t seem real that I could widen my horizons using my diploma and my love of children. Incredible but true, my application was accepted, and at 18 years of age I left for Rocca Inferiore, in the province of Cosenza, where a small Waldensian community had been established.
My store of enthusiasm soon encountered obstacles: the hostility of a somewhat obtuse Catholic priest, the need for the children to work in the fields, and mistrust of the innovation that I represented. Also, that school lacked just about everything, even writing paper, and I had to make repeated requests for it from my superiors.
Furthermore, I thought that with my salary I would be able to help my family and visit them occasionally, but, alas, it sometimes happened that I even had to ask for my salary, meager though it was.
In my correspondence with my superiors, I often requested treatment more similar to that of my colleagues in the public schools.
However, satisfactions were not lacking: I watched pleasure in learning and faith in the Lord grow in my pupils; I devoted myself to them with my whole being, and I got to the point of having 45 pupils, while the public school only had 15. I even received official compliments from the mayor! However, all this very much irritated the priest, who pointed to my school as that of the excommunicated, and even brought about a government inspection. The intention, which was not even very secret, was to have our school closed, but the inspector, when he saw the results achieved by my pupils, ordered the closing of the public school for a year.
After the death of my father, I asked my superiors to send my pay directly to my mother, who had five other children to support. Being far away from my family had always weighed heavily on me, but what disheartened me even more were the rumors which were spread about an alleged relationship between the nephew of our lay preacher and me.
This gossip, which was completely unfounded, wounded and outraged me, so when my grandmother Maria, who had been of tremendous help to my mother, died, I decided to return home.
On September 25, 1893, I sent in my letter of resignation, at the same time requesting all that had been wrongfully withheld. After four years I returned to Luserna San Giovanni to teach in the public school, where I remained in service until 1934.
Clementine died in 1945 in San Giovanni.
Extract from Waldensian Cultural Centre Foundations’s brochure
www. fondazionevaldese.org