DAUGHTERS OF COMPASSION, SERVANTS OF THE LORD. — On 5 December 1841, the noblewoman Alfonsa Petit, after the death of her husband and daughters, devoted herself entirely to the service of the poor sick, gathering them at her estate in Domfront. As the number of patients increased, she sought assistants, with whom she began an association that Msgr. Gignoux, bishop of Beauvais, erected into a religious Congregation on 18 February 1854. Petit was its first superior, under the name of Sister Maria della Compassione.
The specific purpose of the Institute is the care of the poor sick, including in their homes. On 19 August 1869 Pius IX granted the decree of praise; the constitutions were approved temporarily in 1906, and definitively on 30 November 1932. The Institute has about twenty houses and 150 sisters.