He began his career as a Jesuit missionary in the Western United States, where he worked with Native American tribes, and went on to establish the Saint Raphael Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants and Our Lady of Pompeii Church in New York City.

In September 1874, as part of his priestly formation, he began his regency at the Jesuit seminary in Aix en Provence, France, where he studied theology.

He was stationed as a missionary in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Church in Helena, Montana, where he learned English and various Native American languages.

Therefore, in December 1896, his Jesuit superior permitted him to relocate with a group of Italian immigrants to Sunnyside Plantation in Chicot County, Arkansas, whose owner, Austin Corbin, was seeking laborers.

Immediately, his project met problems, as more than 125 people out of the 100 families that moved to Sunnyside died of malaria due to unsanitary conditions, unsafe drinking water, and a mosquito-favorable climate.

The living conditions of the Italians continued to deteriorate when the plantation came under new ownership in June 1896, forcing the few families that could afford to move back to Italy to do so.

[1] Recognizing the squalor of the plantation, Bandini purchased 800 acres (320 hectares) of land in northwest Arkansas, where forty families from Sunnyside had already moved.

On the land, the immigrants grew their own food and cultivated grape vineyards, which became commercially prosperous; the Italian ambassador to the United States visited and spoke approvingly of the colony in 1905.