FRANCISCAN MISSIONARIES OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. – Religious institute founded at Belle Prairie, Minnesota (U.S.A.), by Sister Ignazia di Gesù in 1873. The sisters devote themselves principally to the education of young people in schools, and carry out their work in parishes and on behalf of the children of Italian emigrants.
The institute, spread throughout the United States, Egypt, Ireland, and Australia, and approved by the Holy See in 1923, now has 42 houses with more than 700 religious.
BIBL.: L'Istituto delle M. F. dell'I. C., Rome 1939. Silverio Mattei