MAESTRE DI SANTA DOROTEA, FIGLIE DEI SACRI CUORI

MASTERS OF SAINT DOROTHEA, DAUGHTERS
OF THE SACRED HEARTS. — In 1815 at Villaperta di
Calcinate (Bergamo), the parish priest Giovanni Battista Fe-
narioli initiated the Pious Work of St. Dorothea, for the care
and supervision of abandoned girls, which in 1820 received
the approval of Pius VII.
The work expanded into neighboring towns and in 1830
opened a house in Vicenza in the parish of St. Peter, where
two years earlier a Pious School had been established for
the same purpose. Both institutions had secular teachers,
but were directed by the priest Giovanni Antonio Farina,
who, due to difficulties that arose, merged the Pious School
with the Pious Work of St. Dorothea and entrusted it to
mistresses of proven religious vocation. Thus was born in
1836 the Congregation of the M. of St. D. D. of the S. H.,
which in 1839 received from the Holy See a decree of praise.
The new Institute, founded on solid ground and wisely
directed by Farina, consolidated itself, prospered admirably,
and soon spread to neighboring towns and other regions of
Italy, so much so that today it counts 135 houses with over
2,000 religious, dedicated to the education of the children
of the people and the care of the sick.