DAUGHTERS OF MARY IMMACULATE OF GUADALUPE (Mexico). — Following a suggestion received from Pius IX in 1879, the priest Antonio Plancarte y Labastida founded this religious institute in Zamora (Mexico), with the aim of providing catechetical instruction, which was then prohibited in the State. The archbishop of Mexico approved it, together with the constitutions, in 1885. The decree of praise was issued on 21 May 1895, and that of approval on 11 Aug. 1899. The constitutions were subsequently brought into conformity with the Code by decree of 16 Aug. 1938.
Its specific purpose is the Christian and civic education of girls from all social classes, but especially the poorest, in boarding schools and free schools, and in nurseries and orphanages for working women. The Institute also cares for
the sick in hospitals and the elderly in homes for the aged. In 1947 it had 47 houses and 540 sisters.