MISSIONARIES OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF AARLE RIXTEL, SISTERS. - Although they were instituted in 1885 by Abbot Francesco Pfanner as an association of lay female collaborators to assist the missionary work of the Fathers of Mariannhill, especially in the education of girls, they nevertheless constituted themselves from the outset as a religious congregation, which on 5 February 1888 received, through the Vicar Apostolic of Natal, Msgr. Jolivet O. M. I., the blessing of Leone XIII.
The sisters, who until then had established themselves only in southern Africa, founded a novitiate house at Helden-Panningen (Holland) in 1891. The Constitutions of the Institute were approved by the Holy See in 1903. In the same year the motherhouse was built at Aarle-Rixtel (Holland). The Constitutions were adapted to the new CIC in 1918 and received new approval from the Holy See.
The M. del P. S. number approximately 900 sisters in Holland, Germany, Denmark, southern and eastern Africa, Rhodesia, the Belgian Congo, and the United States.