BROTHERS OF OUR LADY OF MERCY. — Religious institute founded at Malines in 1839 by Msgr. Vittore G. B. Scheppers for carrying out the many works of mercy and charity in hospitals, prisons, and asylums, but especially for the instruction and education of youth.
In 1855, in addition to the schools of Malines, Oliveten, and Aelsenberg, the Brothers directed the prisons of Vilvarde, Ghent, and Namur and, invited by Cardinal Wiseman, opened the first Catholic reformatory in London. In Rome, Pius IX entrusted the direction of the S. Balbina reformatory to the newly founded institute in 1854; it became, for its time, “a model of re-education.” In 1870 there were seven houses in Rome, including hospitals, orphanages, prisons, agricultural schools (Vigna Pia), and the Pontifical school in Piazza Pia, where, in 1904, the maestro Lorenzo Perosi founded the school for the boy choristers of the Sistine Chapel. In 1912 Pius X entrusted the Brothers with the “Pius X” school in the Vatican, which, after the Conciliation, was transferred to Via dei Cavalieri del S. Sepolcro. At present the Brothers also have boarding schools in Fabriano, Jesi, and Busnago. Abroad, they carry out their work not only in Belgium but also in the Netherlands, England, Canada, Argentina, and Uruguay. Like other institutes devoted to teaching, the institute is a lay institute with simple and perpetual vows, and numbers more than 400 religious in 35 houses. Recently they obtained permission for one or two religious from each house to be ordained priests for the spiritual needs of the house itself.