In the 1850s and 1860s, he was twice the president of the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, where he reformed the curriculum in the liberal arts tradition and reduced its significant debt.

In 1861, Ciampi left to minister to cholera patients in Massachusetts, contracting the disease himself, before becoming a missionary to American Indians and the growing Irish Catholic population in Maine.

In his later years, he was the rector of the Jesuit novitiate in Frederick, Maryland, and the pastor of Holy Trinity and St. Aloysius churches in Washington, D.C. Antonio F. Ciampi was born on 29 January 1816, in Rome in the Papal States, to a prominent family.

[2] Ciampi studied at the Roman College,[3] before entering the Jesuit novitiate at Sant'Andrea al Quirinale in Rome on 7 September 1832.

[9] When he took office, Ciampi's main objectives were to decrease the college's high debt and to increase discipline among the Jesuits.

[10] Nonetheless, Ciampi managed to reduce the debt, and was widely praised by both the Maryland provincial superior, Joseph Aschwanden, and the Holy Cross Jesuits for his financial acumen and piety.

Student dormitories, including all their possessions were lost, and the uninsured college, which had no savings, faced a cost of $50,000 (equivalent to approximately $1.44 million in 2023).

However, Aschwanden, in a letter to Roothaan, vowed to never rebuild it due to the school's debt, its location outside of a major city, its competition for resources with the newly opened Loyola College in Baltimore, and the susceptibility of the surviving wing to another fire.

[15] After a new provincial superior, Charles Stonestreet, was appointed, Roothaan decided to allow Holy Cross to be rebuilt.

[17] Ciampi raised money, increased tuition, and cut expenses, declining to heat the building into autumn, but faced hesitation from Stonestreet.

The school also lacked funds to hire a sufficient number of teachers, and besides Patrick Healy, those it had were of poor quality.

[24] By 1859, he and Bishop Fitzpatrick ultimately persuaded the new superior general Peter Jan Beckx not to close the college.

[29] During his term, he oversaw the expansion and completion of Fenwick Hall, which afforded a greater number of classrooms, student residences, and scientific spaces.

In October of that year, the parish raised money and purchased a former Universalist church in the city, for the use of black Catholics.

[34] At Loyola College, Ciampi introduced new practices, such as teaching the waltz, and abandoned others that he found unsuited to American students, such as a mandatory daily prayer of the rosary.

[42] In February 1854, Archbishop Gaetano Bedini submitted Ciampi's name to the Vatican for consideration as the bishop of the newly created Diocese of Portland in Maine.

[44] Ciampi eventually requested to be assigned to the Jesuits' Maine mission, and in November 1854,[43] was sent to Bangor, where he engaged in pastoral work for two years,[42][45] ministering to American Indians and poor Irish Catholics.

[47] The number of Catholics in Maine was quickly growing,[48] and Ciampi delivered sermons in fluent English, with few people knowing he was a foreigner.

[41] In 1856, Ciampi succeeded Aschwanden as the pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown in the District of Columbia.

[49] While pastor of Holy Trinity, Ciampi was also one of many Italian Jesuits to teach at Georgetown University,[50] where he was also the vice president and treasurer.

[52] After his presidency of Loyola College, Ciampi returned the Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown as pastor in 1866, replacing Alphonse Charlier.

[8] In 1876, Ciampi succeeded Bernard A. Maguire as the pastor of St. Aloysius Church in Washington, D.C., where his reputation as a capable preacher continued.

[49] Ciampi became the rector of the Jesuits' St. Stanislaus novitiate in Frederick, Maryland,[54] in 1883, succeeding Archibald J. Tisdall.