ANNUZIATINE CELESTI. — A female congregation founded in Genoa in 1602 by the Blessed Vittoria Fornari, who, after her husband’s death and her children’s settlement, had retired to religious life under the guidance of the Jesuit B. Zanoni. The Constitutions were approved by Clement VIII in 1604. In addition to the three common vows, the nuns took perpetual enclosure and agreed not to speak with relatives except on rare occasions each year. The institute spread from Genoa to France with great success. Suppressed during the French Revolution, it was restored in 1842 at Joinville in the Priory of Our Lady of Pity. Today only five houses remain, three in Italy and two in France.
Bibl.: P. H. Hélyot, Dictionnaire des Ordres Relig., IV. Paris 1714, pp. 297-300; M. Heimbucher, Die Orden u. Kongregationen der kathol. Kirche, I, 3rd ed., Paderborn 1933, pp. 625-627.