Maestre di Santa Dorotea, Daughters of the Sacred Hearts

MAESTRE DI SANTA DOROTEA, FIGLIE DEI SACRI CUORI. - In 1815, at Villaperta di Calcinate (Bergamo), the parish priest Giovanni Battista Fenaroli began the Pious Work of S. Dorotea, for the care and supervision of abandoned girls; in 1820 it received the approval of Pio VII.
The work also spread to neighboring towns, and in 1830 opened a house in Vicenza, in the parish of S. Pietro, where a Pious School had arisen two years earlier for the same purpose. Both institutions had lay teachers, but were directed by the priest Giovanni Antonio Farina, who, owing to difficulties that had arisen, merged the Pious School with the Pious Work of S. Dorotea and entrusted it to teachers of certain religious vocation. Thus, in 1836, the Congregation of the M. di S. D. F. dei S. C. was born, which in 1839 received from the S. Sede the decree of praise. The new Institute, founded on solid foundations and wisely directed by Farina, became firmly established, prospered greatly, and soon spread to neighboring towns and other regions of Italy, so that today it numbers 135 houses with more than 2,000 religious, devoted to the education of the children of the people and to the care of the sick.