FIGLIE DI MARIA E GIUSEPPE, called DAMES DE MARIE (Malines). — A religious institute founded at Olost-Gand (Belgium) at the beginning of the nineteenth century for the purpose of providing Christian instruction to young women; it received the decree of praise on 20 July 1864 and approval on 22 July 1878. The constitutions were approved in 1884, and definitively on 16 December 1891. They were subsequently conformed to the Code by decree of 7 May 1932.
The specific purpose of the Institute is the Christian education of young women in boarding schools, day schools, and free schools for the poor. The sisters are divided into two classes: teachers and lay sisters.
BIBL.: Arch. S. Congr. dei Religiosi, M. 21; M. Heimbucher, Die Orden und Kongregationen der katholischen Kirche, II, Paderborn 1934, p. 507. Agostino Pugliese