from the purely European focus of the Cassinese congregation. The new foundation received approval within the Congregation in 1846 with the visit of the abbot of their mother monastery in Padua. That same year, it also found support from the Vatican with its approval of 18 articles Casaretto had submitted to serve as shaping the character of the foundation. Over the next few years, three other Cassinese monasteries joined Casaretto's experiment. At this point, in 1850, Pope Pius used his authority over the Abbey of Subiaco to appoint Casaretto as abbot there. The existing community was broken up and the monks transferred out to make room for Casaretto's little band of reformers. From the start co-existence in the same house seemed unthinkable. The principal elements of the reform were total reliance by the monks on common property, total abstinence from meat and the recitation of Matins in the middle of the night. In 1851 the Cassinese Congregation formed these communities into a new Province of Subiaco, named for the site of the first Benedictine monastery, granting these communities a degree of autonomy. This grouping was not based on the regional proximity of the monasteries, as was the case with all the other provinces of the Cassinese Congregation, but according to the level of the Observance. That same year, at the strong urging of the pope, he was elected President of the congregation. By 1867, monasteries in Belgium, England and France had also joined this new province. That was the year that Casaretto had decided that conditions in the congregation were such that a complete split would be best. For this he convened an extraordinary Diet which declared such a break, and established the monasteries of the Province as the Cassinese Congregation of the Primitive Observance. One new feature of this congregation, breaking with monastic tradition, was the establishment of a single abbot for the congregation, titled the Abbot General, with the Superior of each monastery being titled simply a prior, who was to be elected triennially, rather than for life. This step drew the criticism of excessive centralization of monastic life, but the new congregation thrived, and received final papal approval in 1872, only five years after its inauguration. Charged with misusing the congregation's finances, Casaretto died in 1878, outside a monastic community, while under investigation for these charges. His vision was not to survive intact. A committee of cardinals