MAESTRE PIE VENERINI. — They were founded at Viterbo on 30 August 1685 Venerini (v.), with the approval of the bishop, Cardinal Urbano Sacchetti, and with the aim of providing Christian education and instruction to young women, especially those of the common people. The teachers were sometimes also called Maestre Pie Teatine, gesuite, or gesuitesse, because they were under the direction of the Jesuits.
In 1694 Venerini began considering new foundations, and by 1700 she had already opened two schools, at Bagnaia and Oriolo. Others followed outside the diocese of Viterbo, so that in 1713 the Institute had 19 houses in seven dioceses, and in 1728, at the founder’s death, 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 their number reduced to 27 after the Napoleonic storm. After 1814, Msgr. A. G. Severoli, bishop of Viterbo and later a cardinal, worked diligently to restore its prosperity, and insisted on assuming its government himself and dispensing with the superior general and the cardinal protector, citing the example of Montefiascone, where the Maestre Pie Filippini were under the direct authority of the bishop. Thus there came to be almost two Institutes of Maestre Pie: one diocesan, in Viterbo, dependent on the bishop, and the other interdiocesan, in Rome; the division lasted from 1822 to 1875. Meanwhile, the Institute underwent further trials. Leo XII decreed that the schools and Maestre Pie outside Rome, whatever their origin, should be placed under the authority of their respective Ordinaries, thereby creating an equal number of small diocesan
institutes, to which were imposed the Rules already approved in 1760 by the Holy See for the Maestre Pie Operaie (Filippini). In Rome itself, 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 complete restoration of the Venerini Institute both within and outside Rome; and through his efforts, a new edition of the Rules was published in 1836, conforming to the founder’s spirit and adapted to the times. These Rules were subsequently approved by Gregory XVI himself.
The suppression of the religious Orders decreed by the Italian government, and the requirement that the teachers hold State diplomas, initially halted its revival, which later became highly promising, to such an extent that at present the teachers number more than 600 in 75 houses, with a novitiate at Ariccia Nuova (Italy) and another at Fitchburg (U. S.A.). In 1941 Pius XII constituted the Institute as a religious Congregation with vows, whereas previously the sisters, although living an entirely religious life, had not taken public vows.