School of Fascist Mysticism

The School of Fascist Mysticism (Italian: La Scuola di mistica fascista Sandro Italico Mussolini) was established in Milan, Italy in 1930 by Niccolò Giani. Its primary goal was to train the future leaders of Italy's National Fascist Party. The school curriculum promoted Fascist mysticism based on the philosophy of Fideism, the belief that faith and reason were incompatible; Fascist mythology was to be accepted as a "metareality". In 1932, Mussolini described Fascism as "a religious concept of life", saying that Fascists formed a "spiritual community".

The School was founded through the efforts of Niccolò Giani and the Milan Gruppo Universitario Fascista, a youth wing of the National Fascist Party for university students. It was formed April 10, 1930 at the Casa del Fascio (Fascist House) at piazza Belgioioso (Belgioioso Square), part of the Istituto Fascista di Cultura (Fascist Institute of Culture).Leo Pollini presided at the meeting. These two organizations had the right to choose the nominal director.

Giani anticipated the opening on April 4, in an article in the GUF newspaper "Libro e moschetto" (Book and Musket) The School of Fascist Mysticism was founded that same Spring in Milan, under the patronage of Benito Mussolini's brother, Arnaldo Mussolini, and in the presence of Catholic Cardinal Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster.

The Milanese institution was first located in San Francesco d'Assisi Street to gather its first staff members, and held its first directors' meeting on April 10, in the casa del fascio (Fascist House) in piazza Belgioioso (Belgioioso Square). Several active Fascist Party members participated, including the Secretary of the GUF, Andrea Ippoliti. Giani explained the objectives of the creation of the school were not to create a duplicate of one of the many organizations of the regime, but to achieve a complete education for students enrolled in GUF.

Following its relocation via Silvio Pellico (Pellico Street), the School was named Sandro Italico Mussolini, on November 29, 1931. On the same day, Arnaldo Mussolini gave the speech "Coscienza e dovere" (Conscience and Duty), launching the school year, and providing the blueprint for the fundamental principles, or rules, of the School, expanded by Giani later. From October 9 to October 15, 1932, Niccolò Giani wrote a type of program manifesto, establishing the founding principles of the School:

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