Missionary Daughters of the Most Sacred Heart. — The Institute was founded in 1890 in Baltimore (Maryland, U.S.A.), when, with the approval of Cardinal Archbishop Gibbons, several pious women, animated by supernatural zeal, began to live in community in order to engage in social and religious assistance for the negroes under the direction of the Josephite Fathers who were dedicated to the same mission.
The sisters were first called Missionaries, Daughters of the Holy Ghost, then Missionary Helpers of the Most Sacred Heart, and since 1941 have borne their present title.
The Institute received the decree of praise on 21 December 1941 with temporary approval of its constitutions, which were definitively approved on 11 July 1949.
In 1947 there were 183 professed sisters, 27 novices, and 19 postulants, distributed in 19 houses.