MAESTRE PIE FILIPPINI. - In 1692 Cardinal M. A. Barbarigo, Bishop of Montefiascone, Venerini (v.) from nearby Viterbo to begin in his city a school on the model of the one she had founded in Viterbo. Soon the Venerini opened as many as 10 schools in various towns of the diocese and also took care to train teachers for the continuation of the work. In Montefiascone she met St. Lucia Filippini (v.), a young pupil-teacher from the monastery of S. Chiara, whom Barbarigo placed in charge of the schools opened by Venerini, after she had returned to Viterbo two years later.
The direction of these schools remained always in the hands of Cardinal Barbarigo, as an institution proper to his diocese. The Cardinal never allowed foundations to be accepted outside his territory. He himself laid down the rules and prescribed the habit. Thus this Institute, although it had an identical character to that of the Maestre Pie of Viterbo, from the beginning was a distinct institution, so much so that the teachers were called Maestre Pie of Cardinal Barbarigo, or Maestre Pie Operai, because they were under the didactic and spiritual guidance of the Pii Operai. The present name dates from the early years of the last century.
After the death of Barbarigo the Institute was able to cross the borders of the diocese and schools were opened in various towns of the Papal States, in Tuscany and in the Kingdom of Naples, with a lively revival of spiritual life among the young.
In 1707 the Apostolic Almoner Monsignor A. Bonaventura established for the Maestre Pie of Montefiascone a school in Rome at S. Lorenzo ai Monti, followed by ten more. Soon the Apostolic Almoner became the superior of the schools and of the Maestre Pie, while the houses of Montefiascone continued under the guidance of the Bishop. By a Brief of Leo XII of March 3, 1828, the houses outside Rome were placed under the respective Ordinaries, while the Maestre Pie of Rome remained under the government of the Secret Almoner; but Leo XIII on March 21, 1896, united the Maestre Pie Filippini under a single Superior General resident in Rome, dependent on the Apostolic Almoner. Those of the diocese of Montefiascone did not accept this union and continued to remain independent; by a decree of the Bishop of July 20, 1926, they were recognized as a diocesan Congregation, though in close spiritual communion with the rest of the Institute, which today numbers over 1000 teachers in 100 houses and is distributed in two provinces: Italy and the United States in the State of New Jersey.