The period was one of significant development of Catholic instruction in the Aosta Valley, notably, for the girls, with the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph and, for the boys, with the Brothers of the Christian Schools.
However, Aosta was not immune from the rising tide of church:state rivalry rolling across western Europe, and in 1857 the religious teachers would be replaced by the municipality with secular instructors, the monks and nuns being expelled in 1860.
[7] The Bishop of Aosta found himself in a particularly intense confrontation with one of the cathedral canons, Félix Orsières, an unapologetic proponent of a version of Liberal Catholicism, and the editor of "Feuille d'annonces d'Aoste", the region's first regular news-journal.
[8] The "cloggies" in question were poor peasants with powerful Christian beliefs who rose up in the face of new taxes and measures deemed anti-clerical - notably the cancellation of certain religiously based celebrations - implemented by the national government under the direction of "Prime minister" Cavour in Turin.
On 29 December Bishop André Jourdain agreed to join with the Syndic of Aosta, Bruno Favre, who was considered a liberal, in order to persuade the rioters to return to their homes.
[7] Jourdain, who was inclined to political conservatism, addressed a letter to the priests and parishioners in 1854 in which he added the "Constitutionnel Valdôtain" and the writings of Canon Orsières to the banned list.