MAESTRE PIE VENERINI. — The Maestre Pie Venerini were founded at Viterbo on 30 August 1685 Venerini (v.), with the approval of Cardinal Bishop Urbano Sacchetti, for the purpose of the Christian education and instruction of young women, especially those of the common people. The teachers were sometimes also called Maestre Pie Teatine, Gesuiti, or Gesuitesse, because they were under the direction of the Jesuits.
In 1694 Rosa Venerini planned new foundations and before 1700 had opened two schools at Bagnaia and Oriolo. Others followed outside the diocese of Viterbo, so that in 1713 the Institute numbered 19 houses in seven dioceses, and by 1728, at the death of the foundress, 40. Meanwhile in 1713 a house had been opened in Rome, and a cardinal protector was appointed. The Institute, which in 1800 had 46 houses, saw them reduced to 27 after the Napoleonic storm. After 1814 Msgr. A. G. Severoli, Bishop of Viterbo and later cardinal, worked energetically for its revival and sought to assume direct control, dispensing with the Mother General and the cardinal protector, citing the example of Montefiascone, where the Maestre Pie Filippini were under the direct jurisdiction of the bishop. Thus there came to be almost two Institutes of Maestre Pie: one diocesan at Viterbo, dependent on the bishop, and another inter-diocesan at Rome. This division lasted from 1822 to 1875. Meanwhile the Institute underwent further trials. Leo XII decreed that schools and Maestre Pie outside Rome, whatever their origin, should be subject to their respective Ordinaries, thus creating as many small diocesan Institutes, to which were imposed the Rules already approved in 1760 by the Holy See for the Maestre Pie Operai (Filippini). Even in Rome two distinct branches of a single Institute were created: one dependent on the Apostolic Almoner and the other on the Cardinal Datary. However, under Gregory XVI, Cardinal A. Rivarola soon obtained the full restoration of the Venerini Institute both within and outside Rome; and under his care in 1836 a new edition of the Rules, conformed to the spirit of the foundress and adapted to the times, was issued and later approved by Gregory XVI himself.
The suppression of religious orders decreed by the Italian government and the obligation for teachers to be state-certified at first arrested their revival, which later became very promising, so that at present there are over 600 sisters in 75 houses, with a novitiate at Ariccia Nuova (Italy) and one at Fitchburg (U.S.A.). In 1941 Pius XII constituted the Institute as a religious Congregation with vows, whereas previously the sisters, though living a wholly religious life, did not make public vows.