Giovanni Antonio Grassi

American missionary

In 1810, Gruber's successor as Superior General, Tadeusz Brzozowski, ordered Grassi to go to the United States. Grassi set sail from Liverpool on 27 August, and landed in Baltimore, Maryland, on 20 October. He met with John Carroll, the Archbishop of Baltimore, and proceeded to Georgetown College in Washington, D.C. He found Baltimore "completely deserted," contrary to what a map of the city suggested; Washington was an even greater contrast to the cities of Europe he was used to, describing it as "not even one-eighth ...built up" and the Capitol unfinished. He also discovered the country was largely hostile to Catholics and especially wary of the Jesuits.

Grassi applied for American citizenship immediately upon arriving, and would become a naturalized citizen on 27 December 1815. When Grassi arrived at Georgetown, he found the college in a state of severe mismanagement. Its enrollment had dropped precipitously, tuition was prohibitively expensive, the size of the faculty was inadequate. The college was also operating on a significant financial deficit. In the preceding two decades, the school had had eight presidents, and there was a perennial debate about what the school's purpose should be. Bishop Carroll described Georgetown as having "sunk[en] to its lowest degree of discredit." In his first year, Grassi taught Italian and Spanish. On 12 August 1812, he attained the rank of gradus in the Society of Jesus, indicating that he had passed the examen ad gradum at the end of his Jesuit formation and had professed all four vows of the Jesuit order.

Presidency of Georgetown College

Grassi was appointed president of Georgetown College on 1 October 1812, succeeding Francis Neale. He was also appointed by the Superior General as the superior of the Jesuits' Maryland Mission, to succeed Charles Neale, Francis' brother. Due to the Napoleonic Wars, the letter of his appointment did not reach Washington until June, and he assumed office on 15 August. John Carroll informed Grassi that the Superior General did not have authority to appoint Grassi as president and rector, as Georgetown College was not owned by the Jesuit order itself but by the Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen; indeed, Grassi was the first president who had not been elected by the board of directors or appointed by Carroll. Nonetheless, Carroll did not oppose Grassi's assumption of leadership, and the board unanimously elected Grassi, but did not confer on him all the powers normally associated with the office. The following year, he went to St. Inigoes, Maryland, to complete his retreat before pronouncing his final vows, where he contracted a fever that lasted for a year.

When Grassi assumed office, Georgetown was struggling financially, with just 31 students enrolled, and Carroll was considering closing the school. Grassi immediately instituted a significant reform of the faculty and curriculum, hiring talented faculty and firing those who were inferior. He also improved discipline among the students. The number of subjects taught at the college increased, and the number of enrolled students increased four-fold. During his presidency, he continued to teach algebra, mensuration, and arithmetic. He also instructed students in astronomy, using instruments he had brought from Stonyhurst. Grassi made by his own hand or had a Jesuit brother make wooden orreries (since the college did not have money to purchase brass ones) for displaying the motion of the planets, as well as other apparatuses to demonstrate principles of mechanics or hydraulics. He also established a museum, that housed these devices, among other items; this museum drew members of the public, including U.S. senators and representatives. Upon request, Grassi used these instruments to calculate the longitude of Washington, D.C., and the timing of eclipses.

Grassi also oversaw Georgetown during the British burning of Washington in the War of 1812. He maintained good relations with the American political leaders and with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Andrey Yakovlevich Dashkov, who frequently visited the college. Though he opposed what he viewed as unbridled freedom in the United States, he approved that it was conducive to the free exercise of religion, which was banned by some of Europe's civil governments. He criticized slavery in the United States as being inconsistent with a national spirit of liberty, and considered it the country's greatest flaw, but wrote that the material conditions of some slaves were superior to those of Europe's peasantry, and regarded immediate, universal emancipation as too dangerous. He also wrote of how Black people were children of God and spoke positively of their faith. While he opposed slavery in the abstract, Grassi's appointment as superior of the Maryland Jesuits thrust him into a world in which slavery was accepted and quotidian. As superior, he was responsible for managing the slaves owned by the Maryland Jesuits.

After the pope restored the Society of Jesus in 1814, Grassi negotiated a concordat with Carroll's successor, Archbishop Leonard Neale (a brother of Charles and Francis) regarding the division of parishes in the United States between the Jesuits and the secular clergy. He took advantage of the enrollment of the sons of various members of Congress at Georgetown to obtain, through the assistance of William Gaston (a Georgetown alumnus and the only Catholic member of Congress), a congressional charter for Georgetown College on 1 March 1815, which raised the institution to university status.

In Archbishop Carroll's estimation, Grassi had "revived the College of G^e-Town, which [had] received great improvement in the number of students and course of studies." For this, Grassi has been described as Georgetown's "second founder". With this great number of students came an increase in the religious and ethnic diversity of students, including more Protestant, French and Irish students. Overall, this led to an increase in the public reputation of Georgetown. His presidency ended on 28 June 1817, and he was succeeded by Benedict Joseph Fenwick. His term as superior of the Maryland Mission also ended, where he was replaced by Anthony Kohlmann on 10 September.

Return to Europe

Representative to the Propaganda Fide

In July 1817, Archbishop Neale sent Grassi to Rome to persuade the Congregation de Propaganda Fide to reverse a previous order to reinstate several priests in Charleston, South Carolina, whom Neale had removed from ministry. Grassi would remain in Europe for the rest of his life, despite the calls of Peter Kenney, the visitor to the United States on behalf of the Superior General, to return Grassi to Georgetown.

His removal from the United States was lamented by many of the church leaders, including one Bishop Benedict Joseph Flaget, who had proposed Grassi to become the Bishop of Detroit. Notwithstanding initial instructions to return to the United States, Grassi remained in Italy, as his physicians told him that he would not survive a voyage across the Atlantic due to a hernia. While in Rome, he successfully pleaded before the Propaganda Fide for the full canonical restoration of the Jesuit order in England.

Provincial superior and royal confessor

Grassi became the procurator (approximately equivalent to a treasurer) of the Jesuit province of Italy, as well as the socius (assistant) to the Jesuit provincial superior of Italy. On 17 November 1821, he became the rector of the College of Nobles in Turin, a position he held until 1831. During his rectorship, the school prospered and became the premier Jesuit boarding school on the Italian peninsula. While in Turin, he developed a relationship with the House of Savoy, and was appointed confessor to King Charles Felix and Queen Maria Cristina of Sardinia. As a result of his closeness with the royal family, King Charles Felix frequently sought Grassi's advice on several matters, and died in Grassi's arms.

In March 1821, Charles Felix's cousin, Charles Albert, had encouraged a revolt against Charles Felix's predecessor and brother, Victor Emmanuel I, that had forced Victor Emmanuel to abdicate. When Charles Felix ascended to the throne, he quashed the revolt. He later discovered the role that Charles Albert played in instigating the plot and intended to remove him from the line of succession. Grassi persuaded Charles Felix not to take this action against Charles Albert. In thanks, when Charles Albert succeeded Charles Felix, he pledged to protect the Jesuits in his kingdom; this promise would later be broken when Charles Albert expelled the order from the Kingdom of Sardinia.

On 10 May 1831, Grassi was appointed the first provincial superior of the newly created Jesuit Province of Turin as well as the rector of the College of the Holy Martyrs. During this time, he was permitted to continue serving as confessor to Maria Cristina, for a total of 25 years, even though it required that he reduce his duties as provincial. Eventually, he moved to Naples without first notifying the Superior General, and he became the rector of the San Sebastian boarding school. Grassi resumed his position at the College of the Holy Martyrs in 1832, but soon thereafter traveled with Maria Cristina to the Jesuit college in Chambéry.

Wanting him to choose a permanent residence, the Superior General recalled Grassi in 1835. He returned to Naples as the confessor to Princess Maria Vittoria of Savoy. He remained in the city to undertake charitable work during the cholera pandemic of 1836. In 1840, Grassi became the rector of the Pontificio Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide, replacing Liberio Figari. He held this position for two years, and was succeeded by Giovanni Batta Dessi. He then served as the assistant to the Superior General for Italy from 1842 to 1849, and was the archivist of the Jesuit generalate house in Rome. His transfer to Rome was made despite strong protests from Filiberto Avogadro di Collobiano, a Sardinian senator, on the grounds that it would be cruel to Maria Cristina. Grassi also assisted in writing the biography of Joseph Pignatelli, his former novice master, and testified in 1842 during his cause for beatification. By virtue of his American citizenship, he was permitted to remain in Rome—as well as even wear his cassock in public and teach classes—during the revolution of 1848 and under the government of the Roman Republic in 1849. Grassi died on 12 December 1849 in the house of Cardinal Angelo Mai in Rome.