Ursulines

URSULINES. - Name of the religious Congregation founded by St. Angela (v.) Merici, according to which many other congregations of the same name developed, but with different habit and customs.

I. COMPANY OF ST. URSULA

Founded in Brescia on 25 Nov. 1535 by St. Angela Merici of Desenzano. It is the first secular female Institute to arise in the Church. Its members remain in their families and dedicate themselves to all the works of charity that fall within woman's sphere, but above all to the teaching of Christian doctrine as a means of countering errors and bad morals. Through the sanctification of woman at the domestic hearth it intends to bring about the renewal of society. The Rule, dictated by St. Angela for her Company of secular virgins, was approved by the bishop of Brescia, Msgr. Cornaro, on 8 Aug. 1536. In turn, after the foundress's death, Paul III approved it on 9 June 1544.

The Company spread rapidly in Italy. Cremona was the first to receive it in 1565. Then St. Charles Borromeo had its Rules sent to him in order to establish it in Milan in 1566, and at the provincial Council of 1576 he recommended to all his suffragans that they establish it in their cities, as an excellent means of reform. In 1581, moreover, after the apostolic visitation made to Brescia, he again approved its Rules and obtained a confirmation of them from Gregory XIII (24 Dec. 1582). Very soon Lombardy and the Veneto saw the Ursulines flourishing everywhere.

From Italy the Institution passed into Switzerland and from there into France, thanks to the activity of the Ven. Cesare de Bus, founder of the Doctrinarians. In 1594 Fr. Romillon gave to the Ven. Francesca de Bermond and her companions the Rule written by St. Charles for the Milanese Ursulines, who lived in community, and established them at Isle-sur-Sorgues, in the Comtat Venaissin. This is the origin of the French Ursulines. Other similar congregations soon arose in various places in France, but without any bond of filiation of one toward another; so that from them there later originated eight different branches of monastic Ursulines (v. below).

Meanwhile, in Brescia, the Company of St. Ursula preserved itself in its primitive state and prospered there until the French Revolution, when all associations of sisters were prohibited; the Company of St. Ursula too was then stripped of all its goods. After the Revolution, Msgr. Nava, bishop of Brescia, invited the sisters to repopulate the convents; some preferred to remain Daughters of St. Angela; but, having no longer any place where they might gather, the Company seemed for some time on the point of being lost. This lasted until the day when, in 1864, the countesses Maddalena and Elisabetta Girelli established in Brescia a group of associates of the "Pious Union of the new Ursulines, daughters of Mary Immaculate." The two Girelli solicited from the bishop, Msgr. G. Verzeri, the canonical erection; but he wished rather that they reestablish the Company of St. Ursula according to its primitive form; to which the Girelli willingly submitted; and on 13 June 1866, the very day on which the Italian Parliament voted the suppression of all religious Orders, Msgr. Verzeri issued the decree of erection, which revived the Institute of St. Angela, that is, the Company of the secular Ursulines. A marvelous flowering immediately followed; Leo XIII granted the brief of praise (12 July 1901); Pius X favored it with another brief on 15 May 1907 and Pius XI on 12 Sept. 1930. There is scarcely a city of any importance that does not have a meeting place of the "Angeline," or Daughters of St. Angela, as they now like to call themselves. From the first years of this century the Company has also spread in France, in Munich, in the East Indies (Mangalore), in Mexico, in Colombia, in Venezuela. All these foundations depend on the superior general, who resides in Brescia. In Italy alone the Company numbers about 16,000 sisters, distributed in 46 dioceses.

II. URSULINES OF ST. CHARLES (Milan)

St. Charles Borromeo procured for himself in 1566 the primitive Rule of the Company of St. Ursula and gave it to a group of pious men and women of his city, introducing into it some modification required by the Milanese environment. These secular Ursulines soon multiplied in the diocese and did an immense good, so much so that at the provincial Council held in 1576 the holy archbishop exhorted all his suffragans to adopt the Company of St. Ursula as the principal means of parish catechetical organization and of female education. In 1582 they were approved by Gregory XIII.

Various influences, however, intervened that pushed these Ursulines toward regular monasteries, and St. Charles had several times to yield to their desires and make of them as many Capuchins or Poor Clares or Augustinians. And then, in order to preserve them as Ursulines, he erected, by decree of 5 Sept. 1584, the first four convents where they might live in community, and drew up the appropriate rules. These, however, were not delivered to the "congregated" Ursulines until after the Saint's death, which occurred on 4 Nov. 1584. They add to the Rule of St. Ursula neither vows nor enclosure, but fix the organization of the houses with a view to the perfection of their members. Nevertheless in Milan the primitive Brescian form also continued to flourish.

The Rule of St. Charles was reissued by Card. Monti in 1643. A list of 17 Dec. 1789 cites the names of 14 houses of congregated Ursulines operating in the Milanese territory. All were dispersed by the Revolution. In 1843 Card. Gaisruch, archbishop of Milan, gave to a group of Franciscan tertiaries, led by Maria Maddalena Barioli, the Rules of the Congregated of St. Charles and a convent in Via Lanzone. From then on they took the name of Ursulines of St. Charles. The houses, founded subsequently and at first autonomous, later grouped themselves under the authority of a superior general residing in Milan. The Ursulines of St. Charles now have two houses in Milan, one in Rome and eight others in other cities of Italy, where they impart instruction according to all all levels, from nursery school to the classical lyceum and the higher teacher-training schools. The religious number about 600 in all.

III. ORDER OF ST. URSULA

In France eight different branches of congregated Ursulines had been founded, according to the Milanese type (v. above), independent of one another, though acknowledging the same Brescian origin. The group of Paris, founded by Francesca da Bermond, "the first Ursuline of France," asked for and obtained, by a bull of Paul V of 1612, to be erected into a monastic Order. The other original groups soon obtained the same: Toulouse in 1616, Bordeaux in 1618, Lyon and Dijon in 1618, Tulle in 1621, Arles in 1624, Avignon in 1632.

The Order spread in these eight forms, somewhat different from one another, but all united in spirit, and thus divided it lived in eight monastic congregations for nearly three centuries. The most numerous were the sisters originating from Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon and Toulouse. In 1639, the ven. Marie of the Incarnation Guyart (v.), of the community of Tours (Bordeaux observance), set out with some companions from Tours and Paris for Canada, where she founded the first work of female education in a mission country. The monasteries of Ursulines were not slow to spread throughout Europe, but especially in France, where at the time of the Revolution they numbered 350. The first monastery of the Order in Italy was founded in Rome (via Vittoria) in 1688, by Orsolina delle Fiandre, called there by Laura d'Este, duchess of Modena, and by her daughter, Maria d'Este, wife of James II, king of England. The French Revolution was later to destroy two thirds of the monasteries of the Order in France, which, by way of compensation, developed in the 19th century to a considerable extent in other countries and in the Americas.

At present, not counting the numerous ones aggregated to the "Roman Union" (v. below), the monasteries of the Order are divided into autonomous houses (about 65) and into groups of filials around a central house, whose superior bears the title of mother general; such is, for example, the group derived from Québec and organized a short time ago under the name of "Union of the French-Canadian Ursulines," and that of Chatham (Ontario) founded in 1860 by the Ursulines of Faouët (Brittany), which gathers under a superior general nearly 300 religious of English Canada and possesses some thirty schools and boarding houses in the dioceses of London, Toronto, Calgary (Alberta).

IV. URSULINES OF DÔLE

Founded at Dôle in Burgundy in 1616 by the venerable mother Anne de Xainctonge for the education of girls; they were never cloistered.

Their Constitutions were approved by Innocent X in 1648 and by Innocent XI in 1678. The French Revolution closed their houses, but mother de Vers later re-established the convent of Dôle and mother Rolando de Bussy founded that of Tours. In 1898 this house obtained the approval of the revised Constitutions and its own erection as mother-house of the whole Institute. Driven out of Tours in 1903 by the sectarian French laws, the nuns transferred their mother-house to Haverloo-les-Bruges, in Belgium, where it still is. Houses were then founded in New York (1902), in Rome (1904), at Sluis in Holland (1911); they direct a flourishing college at Fribourg in Switzerland and have houses in Germany and in England. Their method of education is that of the Jesuits. In 1902 to the original title of O. they added the designation "of the Holy Virgin", to distinguish themselves from the Daughters of St. Angela Merici, with whom they have nothing in common but the patronage of St. Ursula.

V. URSULINES OF MARY IMMACULATE

Founded at Piacenza in 1649 by Mother Brigida of Jesus, in the world Brigida Morello, widow Zancani.

The Institute was approved from the outset by the bishop Msgr. Alessandro Scapi. In our times, for about twenty years, its prioress general was Countess Radini-Tedeschi, who brought it to great prosperity. It has flourishing houses in Rome, Rapallo, Fidenza, La Spezia; the castle of Rezzanello is a center of spiritual exercises for young ladies. Since 1934 it has had three mission houses in the diocese of Calicut (India).

VI. URSULINES OF JESUS

Also called Daughters of the Incarnation and also Orsoline of Chavagnes.

Founded at Chavagnes-en-Pallier (Vendée, France) in 1802 by the venerable servant of God Louis Mary Baudouin, they took the name of Orsoline in order to obtain official recognition of their houses of education, because Napoleon at that time granted that recognition only to the Orsoline. However, they have no relation whatsoever to the Orsoline, who descend from St. Angela Merici. They have houses in France, Italy, Algeria, England, Scotland, Holland.

VII. URSULINES GEROSOLIMITANE OF MARY IMMACULATE, CALLED OF GANDINO

They originated from a group of young people from Brianza, in the Milanese area, gathered in 1818 by don Francesco della Madonna, himself from Brianza.

Canonically erected by the bishop of Bergamo in 1858, they founded their first branch house in 1864. Until 1858 they had observed the Rules of St. Charles Borromeo; but the bishop of Bergamo gave them new ones, preserved in manuscript until 1889, then printed with an appendix concerning the works taken up at Gandino: a hospital in 1864; a nursery school in 1886; an orphanage in 1888.

In 1921, the Institute counted: 34 houses: nursery schools, boarding schools for workers, educational institutions, boarding homes, hospitals, shelters for the elderly and the deaf and mute, elementary schools, assistance to apostolic houses of missionaries, orphanages, schools for the deaf and mute. From 1921 to 1934 another 48 houses arose. At present the religious number about 500; those taught 6000, those assisted 7000. The mother house is at Bergamo.

VIII. URSULINES OF THILDONCK

Under this name are included all the houses of O. that originated from the one at Thildonck, which was founded in 1818 by the local curate, the Ven. Jan Cornelius Lambertz, so that he might be assisted in his works. He placed the first sisters under the protection of St. Ursula and gave them Rules derived from the monastic constitutions of Bordeaux, though without enclosure. During his lifetime he founded no fewer than 90 houses, in Belgium, Holland, England and Germany.

In 1899 the houses of Belgium came together into two centralized diocesan Unions, each headed by a superior general: that of the diocese of Malines with Thildonck as mother-house; that of the diocese of Liège, with its mother-house at Maesyck. Two communities refused to affiliate: Saventhem, which joined the Roman Union, and Wavre-Notre-Dame, which developed on its own, later founding 8 branches, one of them in the Belgian Congo.

Other Unions of houses of O., sprung from Thildonck, were also formed in Holland; for example the Union of Ruremonde, aggregated as such to the Roman Union in 1929. This Dutch Union has founded flourishing houses on the island of Java, which now form a province of the Roman Union.

At present the Union of Maesyck has 500 religious, 11 houses and a mission in the Belgian Congo.

That of Malines, the only one that retains the title of O. of Thildonck, has more than 800 religious, 17 houses, 4 mission stations in Bengal and two branches in North America.

IX. O. OF SOMASCA of VERCURAGO (Bergamo)

The Institute was founded in 1822 at Somasca.

Approved by the bishop on 4 Dec. 1857, it was confirmed by the Holy See on 5 Aug. 1917. It has 37 houses in Italy, where 300 religious work for the good of 3000 among children, young girls and apprentices, and attend to religious and social assistance in the parishes.

X. URSULINES OF CALVARIENBERG

They were founded in 1838 through the transfer to Calvarienberg (diocese of Trier) of an ancient convent, originally from Bordeaux, re-established in 1828 at Monschau, near Cologne.

The O. prospered there so greatly that they founded several other monasteries, which remained administratively grouped around the mother house, in the form of a diocesan congregation approved by the bishop of Trier. Expelled from the country during the Kulturkampf, they founded flourishing houses in Holland and Belgium; they returned to Germany as soon as the persecution ended. On 21 Dec. 1909 they were approved by Pius X and became a Union of pontifical right. They have four branches in America. At present they number 560 religious in 14 houses.

XI. URSULINES DAUGHTERS OF MARY IMMACULATE

The Institute was born at Mornese, in the diocese of Acqui, through the work of the pious young woman Angela Maccagno, who had joined with five companions to practice religious perfection in the world (1854). The servant of God Giuseppe Frassinetti composed a rule of life for them, under the title of "The Pious Union of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate."

In 1859 they realized that the Rule was almost identical to the one that St. Angela Merici had given to her Company; the new association then took the name of "Pious Union of the New O., Daughters of Mary Immaculate, under the protection of St. Ursula and St. Angela Merici." The Rule was approved under this title by the bishop of Novara, Msgr. Giacomo Filippo de' Gentile. Subsequently, in several localities where they had established themselves, the associates simply took up again the primitive Rule of St. Ursula, with the name of "Company of St. Ursula." It is worthy of note that St. Mary Mazzarello, co-foundress with St. John Bosco of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, came out of the Pious Union of Mornese.

XII. URSULINES OF VELTEVREDEN

This house, founded in 1859 by that of Batavia-Nordwyck, itself a branch of Thildonck (1856), was aggregated for some time to the Union of Ruremonde, then in 1922 became autonomous under the jurisdiction of the vicar apostolic of Batavia and was the mother-house of a congregation whose Constitutions were approved by the Holy See in 1929. This Union of Veltevreden was aggregated in 1939 to the Roman Union.

XIII. O. OF VERONA, called DAUGHTERS OF MARY IMMACULATE OF VERONA

They were founded in 1860 by Fr. Zeffirino Agostini, curate of Sts. Nazarius and Celsus, who wrote their Rules, drawing inspiration from the Constitutions and the life of St. Angela Merici.

The bishop approved them on 28 Nov. 1860. From the beginning the sisters kept schools and assisted in all the parish works, including those for the elderly. Having grown in number, they spread through the diocese of Verona and twelve others, with 85 branch houses, about 300 religious and an average, for each house, of 150 pupils. The Institute was definitively approved by Card. Bacilieri in 1917, in 1932 obtained from Pius XI the decree of praise and definitive approval in 1940.

XIV. URSULINES OF THE ROMAN UNION

In order to come to the aid of the monastery of Rome, reduced to destitution by the subversive laws of the Italian government, the O. of Blois, beginning in 1878, accepted on behalf of that monastery the novices whom the Italian laws prevented it from accepting. But very soon they themselves had to come to Rome in order to place the O. in another house, because the monastery had been gradually occupied by the Royal Academy of Music (which is still there).

Meanwhile another monastery as well, that of Calvi in Umbria, called upon the O. of Blois for help, and in 1896 they sent three religious. In 1898, the two houses of Rome and Calvi, in order to make their restoration secure, asked and obtained from the Holy See permission to form with the house of Blois a canonical Union, with a superior general residing at Blois. But the Blois-Rome-Calvi Union had scarcely been constituted when Leo XIII, through Mother St. Julien Aubry, superior general, officially made known to the whole Order his desire to see this Union become general among all the autonomous houses of O. Moreover, the Pope had it officially written to the bishops (29 July 1899) to propose this union to all the O. of their dioceses (letters of Card. S. Vannutelli, prefect of the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars). The proposal, however, guaranteed full freedom to the religious.

On Nov. 15, 1900, the first General Chapter of the Order opened in Rome with the representatives of 70 houses from all countries and all the Congregations. On the 21st the union was voted, which on the 28th Leo XIII approved verbally, reserving the decree for later, on account of the persecution in France. The first superior general, appointed by the Pope on the unanimous presentation of the Chapter, was Mother St. Julien Aubry, a professed nun of Blois. On July 17, 1903, Leo XIII promulgated the decree of approval; on Sept. 17 of the same year Pius X approved, as an experiment, its first Constitutions; and finally, in 1926, at the desire of the Church and under the effective impulse of the third mother general, the Institute was perfected according to ecclesiastical norms and fully centralized. The Constitutions, reworked, were definitively approved on March 17, 1936.

Since its foundation, the Roman Union never ceased to see autonomous monasteries from various countries come to it, and even entire regional Unions, such as those of Ruremonde and of Poland (1929 and 1936); and in 50 years it has passed from 63 to 240 houses, gathering under Roman obedience more than 7000 religious. The Roman Union is solidly constituted with a centralized and hierarchical government. Each province (there are now 20), or at least each country, has its own novitiate, after which the young religious spend at least three years in the houses of study, until their perpetual profession.

After another 10 years of apostolate among the young, they complete a third probation, purely religious, over a course of six months; then they spend another 4 months in complementary studies of theology, philosophy, history of the Order and art. The education imparted by the O. is marked by a family spirit: the children are grouped there according to their age, to receive a suitable human and religious formation, under the immediate direction of the "division directors" and the supervision of the "general director" under the authority of the prioress (cf. M. de St-Jean Martin, L'éducation des Ursulines, Rome 1947). The Roman Union also works in several missions: Alaska, Brazil, China, British Guiana and the Antilles, Greece, Indonesia, Manchuria, the State of Montana (Redskins), Siam, Transvaal.

The generalate house is in Rome.

XV. URSULINES OF FRANKFURT AM MAIN

They are also called Sisters of the Congregation of Ursula. They were founded on 29 September 1879 by three Ursulines of Venray (Holland), of the Congregation of Thildonck, to direct the higher girls' school.

Since their number kept increasing, they founded three other branches, two in Germany and one in Brazil. Their apostolate is the same as that of the other Ursulines; their Constitutions are close to those of Thildonck. They are governed by a superior general under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Limburg, and currently number 4 houses and 130 religious.

XVI. URSULINES OF DÜSSELDORF

They are also called Ursulines of the Holy Savior, because during their exile, on account of the Kulturkampf, they joined the German Sisters of the Holy Savior, who, like them, devoted themselves to the education of young women.

The merger of the two Institutes was approved by Leo XIII on March 16, 1883. The mother house, provisionally at Roermond (Holland), established itself in Düsseldorf in 1907. The group numbers 140 religious in 7 branches.

XVII. URSULINES OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS AGONIZING

Also called Gray O., they were founded in 1920 by Mother Ursula Countess Ledochowska, a professed Ursuline and former superior of the monastery of Kraków, who, struck by the spiritual and material misery of the youth of the countryside, driven by a series of providential circumstances, on the advice of her brother Fr. Wladimir, General of the Jesuits, and with the consent of the ecclesiastical authorities, left the community and founded this new Congregation.

The Constitutions, drafted by her herself, were approved by the Holy See on trial in 1923 and definitively in 1930. Together with instruction in schools and the care of poor youth, the O. devote themselves to the conversion of schismatics, and they have boarding schools for young nobles and for female students. At present the O. number over 600 with 25 houses.

XVIII. URSULINES OF PARMA, CALLED OF THE SACRED HEART

The Institute does not derive its origins from St. Angela Merici, but arose in Parma in 1575 under the name of "Virgins of St. Ursula." It has about 150 religious and 6 houses in Italy, in which it provides instruction to young women of society and also engages in various works of spiritual mercy for the young women and women of the common people. It also has three mission houses in the diocese of Peng-Pu (China).