FIGLIE DI MARIA AUSILIATRICE. – Institution founded at Mornese in 1868 through the initiative of the local parish priest, Don Peszarino, and Blessed Maria Domenica Mazzarello, in a modest building already known as the House of the Immaculate; the young women who lived there were consequently called Daughters of the Immaculate.
In 1871 St. Giovanni Bosco gave this institution new impetus and new life, transforming it into a true religious community and calling the young women Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. The Institute thus became the female branch of the great Salesian institution, and the nuns pursue in the field of the instruction and education of girls the same purpose as that pursued by the priests in the male sphere. It depends directly on the Rector Major of the Salesians. Its growth today is very considerable, and the nuns, dispersed throughout the world, number more than 12,000, with over 1,000 houses.