DAUGHTERS OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY (Los Angeles). – Institute founded in July 1848 by Fr. Giocchino Masmitja y Puig in Olot, diocese of Gerona (Spain); in 1871, at the invitation of Mgr. Amat Taddeo, Bishop of Monterrey and Los Angeles, some sisters went to work in that diocese. Subsequently, vocations and houses increased in several American dioceses.
Differences of language, distance from the central government, and other causes led to repeated attempts at separation, which the Sacred Congregation of Religious granted on 11 March 1924, erecting the American houses of the D. of the I. H. of M. into an independent pontifical congregation.
The constitutions received from the founder, already modified by local bishops, were revised and approved by the Holy See on 16 February 1916. In 1947, the sisters numbered 235 in 20 houses.