Missionaries of Our Lady of Africa (White Sisters). – Archbishop Lavigerie of Algiers founded this Congregation, as he had founded that of the Missionaries of Africa (known as the White Fathers). On 8 September 1869 he received several young women from France who had come to devote themselves to the education of orphan girls, victims of the famine of 1867. At the outset the founder wished the sisters to engage in agricultural work, even the heaviest kind. In 1874 the Institute merged with that of the Sisters of the Assumption, becoming autonomous in 1879. The White Sisters then numbered about forty.
After a period of crisis, during which the founder considered dissolving the Congregation, the strong character and humility of Mother Maria Salome, the superior general, overcame every obstacle. Besides the sanctification of the sisters in community life, the aim of the Congregation was the exercise of charity, religious instruction, care of the sick in hospitals, but above all cooperation in the missions of Africa. Vocations were numerous. The mother house was established at Saint-Charles de Birmandreis in Algeria. Vast mission fields opened from Kabylia to the Sahara, from Tunisia to French Sudan, to Tanganyika, to Ruanda, to Urundi, to Uganda, to the Congo, in all the missions of Africa held by the White Fathers. Houses were founded in France, Belgium, Holland, Canada and elsewhere. In 1948 the White Sisters numbered 1,500, spread over more than 160 residences.