DAUGHTERS OF THE CRUCIFIED OF SAINT MARY MAGDALENE. - In 1836 the priest Giovanni Quilici, parish priest of Livorno, gathered several women into an association in order to provide shelter for endangered and abandoned young women, offer a retreat to penitents, and also render charitable service to girls of every social class through Christian civic education. Meanwhile, with the support and financial assistance of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the Collegio di S. Maria Maddalena had been established for the education of young girls. The first associates of Quilici went to this Institution.
The administration and direction of the work were entrusted to a representative of the civil government, called an «operato». It was the increasingly progressive interference of these operati in the internal affairs of the association that gave rise to other branches of the D. of the C. Indeed, some associates, having gone to Florence to the Istituto di S. Francesco e S. Maria Maddalena, declared themselves independent in 1853; and others did likewise after going in 1880
to Fauglie, in the diocese of S. Miniato. This branch, free from all civil interference, developed more extensively and obtained pontifical approval on 28 Sept. 1882 and 2 March 1906. On 14 Dec. 1922 the S. Congregazione dei Religiosi decreed the union of the branches of Livorno and Florence; and on 12 July 1927 it approved the union of all three branches. Thus united, the Institute obtained temporary approval of its constitutions in 1839; these were definitively approved on 2 Jan. 1946.
Today it has slightly more than 20 houses, with about 200 sisters.