DAUGHTERS OF MARY HELP OF CHRISTIANS
An institution founded at Mornese in 1868 at the initiative of the local parish priest, Fr. Pestarino, with the collaboration of Bl. Maria Domenica Mazzarello, in a modest building already known as the House of the Immaculate. The young women living there were called Daughters of the Immaculate.
In 1871 St. John Bosco gave new impetus and life to this institution, transforming it into a true religious community and naming the young women Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. The Institute thus became the female branch of the great Salesian institution, and the sisters pursue in the field of instruction and education of girls the same purpose as that of the priests in the male field. It is directly dependent on the Rector Major of the Salesians. Today its development is immense, and the sisters, spread throughout the world, number more than 12,000 in over 1,000 houses.
DAUGHTERS OF MARY AND JOSEPH (DAMES DE MARIE)
A religious institute founded at Olost-Gand (Belgium) at the beginning of the 19th century with the purpose of providing Christian instruction for young women. It obtained the decree of Jode on 20 July 1864 and approval on 22 July 1878. The constitutions were approved in 1884 and definitively on 16 December 1891. They were then adapted to the Code by decree of 7 May 1932.
The specific purpose of the Institute is the Christian education of youth in boarding schools, extern schools, and free schools for the poor. The sisters are divided into two classes: teachers and conversi.