PALLADINO, LAWRENCE BENEDICT

Missionary; b. Tiglieto, Italy, Aug. 15, 1837; d. Missoula, Montana, Aug. 19, 1927. Lawrence was the youngest boy of Giulio and Maddalena (Rizzi) Palladino's seven children. After attending Genoa's minor seminary, he became a Jesuit novice at Querciuoli in the Duchy of Modena, Italy, Nov. 18, 1855. The anti-clericalism of Italian nationalists explains his training in Austria and France before he was ordained on May 30, 1863, at Nice, France. Early in 1864 he went to California, where he studied and taught at St. Ignatius College, San Francisco, until 1867. He then began missionary service in the Pacific Northwest. During the next 60 years he worked among settlers and Indians in Washington, Idaho, and Montana. He is usually associated with Montana where he spent 44 years (at St. Ignatius Mission, at Helena, and at Missoula). He purchased property in Helena that was later transferred to John B. Brondel, first Bishop of Helena, when the see was established in 1884. Palladino served at different times as the new bishop's secretary, counselor, director of education, and vicar-general. He spent many years, also, as pastor of St. Francis Xavier's Church, Missoula. His civic activities during Montana's formative years and his role as regional historian gave his works lasting value. Because of the disappearance of many of the materials he used, his Indian and White in the Northwest: A History of Catholicity in Montana (1894) became a primary source for Montana history.

Bibliography: w. n. bischoff, The Jesuits in Old Oregon (Caldwell, Idaho 1945). w. p. schoenberg, Jesuits in Montana, 1840–1960 (Portland, Ore. 1960).

[w. n. bischoff]