FRATELLI MISSIONARI DI SAN FRANCESCO D'ASSISI, ISTITUTO dei. — It began in 1896 through the work of a certain Paolo Moritz, a converted Jew from Danzig, together with other brethren who had previously belonged to a so-called Congregation of the Immaculate Conception for the conversion of India, founded in Cologne in 1892 by Antonio M. Bodewig,
a former Jesuit and parish priest of Bona, and subsequently transferred to Malines, whence about twenty lay missionaries departed in 1895 for the diocese of Lahore.
In 1901 it was canonically erected by the bishop of Nagpur (India), who approved its constitutions in 1909. On 20 May 1906 it was affiliated with the Third Regular Order of S. Francesco. In 1908 the mother house was transferred from Kandwa, diocese of Nagpur, to Mount Poinsur, now in the diocese of Bombay. It received an initial approval from Propaganda on 8 January 1921, which, by a rescript of 27 April 1927, placed it under its authority. On 29 June 1931 the constitutions were approved ad septennium. After the house for aspirants, or postulancy, at Pietersborough, diocese of Northampton (England), founded in 1907, had closed after a few years of difficult existence, another was opened at Como and subsequently transferred to Maslianico, where the representative of the superior general resides.
The purpose of the Institute is the propagation of the Faith, especially in India.
In 1949 the brothers were working in 24 dioceses and numbered 100 in all, of whom 90 were professed and 10 novices. Savrini Parenti
HOSPITAL BROTHERS, SONS OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (CONCEPTIONISTS).
- They arose in Rome through Fr. Luigi M. Monti in 1857, for the care of the sick and the education of orphaned and abandoned youth. Pius IX definitively approved them in 1855. The constitutions, drawn up by the founder, received the definitive sanction of the Holy See on 5 February 1906.
The Brothers wear an azure cassock, fastened at the waist by a white sash. The institute is lay, and only those members necessary for spiritual assistance are admitted to the priesthood; all, however, have equal rights and duties.
Expelled from the Hospital of S. Spirito in 1889, they devoted themselves to the education of orphans; as early as 1886, Fr. Monti had opened the first orphanage in Saronno.
Today the Congregation has numerous hospital and educational institutions both in Italy and in Argentina, with 24 houses and approximately 200 religious.