FIGLIE DEL DIVIN ZELO. — Religious congregation, founded by the canon Annibale Maria di Francia in 1887 through the gathering of the first members who wished to devote themselves to the many works of charity he himself had begun in Messina, and approved by the archbishop of Messina on 5 August 1906.
On 19 February 1935 it obtained the decree of praise and the first approval of its constitutions. Its specific purpose is the Christian instruction of abandoned youth and constant prayer for priestly vocations, to which its members bind themselves by vow. The mother house is in Rome. In 1949 the Institute had 25 houses and 390 sisters.
BIBL.: anon., Cenni bibliografici del can. Di Francia Annibale Maria (1851-1917), Messina 1931; Arch. S. Congr. dei Religiosi, M, 123. Giulio Mandelli