FIGLIE DI SAN GIUSEPPE (Gerona). - At the beginning of 1875, two young women of modest family, Maria Comas and Maria Gri, desirous of living a life of retirement and recollection, rented a house at Calella de la Costa, diocese of Gerona, where they were soon joined by other young women, and together they began to lead a life of work and prayer.
Shortly afterwards they came into contact with the Jesuit Fr. Francesco Butina, who
took them under his spiritual direction, prescribed for them an initial rule, and formed them into a true religious congregation, which was canonically erected on 1 Aug. 1876 and approved by the diocesan Ordinary together with its constitutions on 5 Jan. 1879.
The Institute received the decree of praise on 21 Sept. 1900 and definitive approval on 14 Nov. 1902. The constitutions were definitively approved on 27 May 1935.
Its special pur-
pose is the care of the sick and the poor in hospitals and hospices and at home, and the Christian education and instruction of poor girls. In 1948 the Institute had 51 houses with 870 sisters.