MARIANITE DELLA SANTA CROCE. – Institute founded at Le Mans in 1841 by the priest B. A. Moreau and Leocadia Gascoin. It received the decree of praise on 19 February 1867, together with temporary approval of the Constitutions, which were definitively approved on 28 October 1885 and again, harmonized with the Code, on 10 April 1926.
The sisters devote themselves to the instruction and Christian education of young women, especially those who are poor and abandoned, through schools, boarding schools, arts and trades institutes, and orphanages; as well as to caring for the sick in their homes and in hospitals and clinics. They form a single class and take simple, temporary, and perpetual vows. The taking of a fourth vow, that of Foreign Missions, is optional.
At the end of 1948 there were 436 sisters and 29 novices, distributed among 42 houses.