**DAUGHTERS OF SAINT MARY OF PROVIDENCE** (Como). - Fr. Luigi Guanella, who became parish priest of Piamello Lario in 1881, found there an orphanage for girls already begun by his predecessor, with the assistance of some Daughters of Mary Immaculate, led by Marcellina Bosatta. He took special care of it, reorganizing it both administratively and financially, and called the group of Daughters of Mary who wished to continue their work there the “Daughters of St Mary of Providence,” giving them suitable regulations from which the Institute’s constitutions later developed. In 1885, they received a special religious habit.
Once thus organized, the Institute grew, spreading beyond the boundaries of the diocese and yielding abundant fruit everywhere, so that the Holy See granted it a decree of praise in 1901 and approval of the Institute and provisional approval of its constitutions on 27 September 1908. Final approval of the constitutions came on 19 May 1917. On 18 October 1929, the Sacred Congregation of Religious approved amendments to the constitutions to bring them into conformity with the Code of Canon Law.
**DAUGHTERS OF SAINT MARY OF PROVIDENCE** (St Augustine of Puglia)
The special purpose of the Institute is the care and assistance of orphans, the infirm, and the abandoned. In 1943, the Institute had 43 houses with 1,050 professed sisters.