PICCOLE FIGLIE DI SAN GIUSEPPE.
Religious congregation founded in Montréal on 26 Apr. 1857 by the Sulpician priest Antonio Mercier.
On 20 Sept. 1897 it received the approval of the bishop and on 28 Jan. 1946 that of the Holy See. The sisters devote themselves to serving the clergy and attend to the vestment and ecclesiastical furnishings conference, with particular regard for missions and poor clergy. The Institute currently has 200 sisters in 5 houses.
Silverio Mattei
PICCOLE FIGLIE DI SAN GIUSEPPE.
Founded as a pious association in 1888 by Fr. G. Baldo, archpriest of Ronco sull'Adige (diocese of Verona), to ensure regular service to the hospital he had established in the same parish. They were constituted by Bishop Mons. Bacilieri as a religious congregation on 20 Apr. 1896.
The purpose is to care for the sick, including those with contagious diseases, in hospitals, nursing homes, shelters, asylums, and at home, as well as the instruction and education of youth through kindergartens, schools of study and work, colleges, orphanages, women’s boarding schools, and Sunday oratories. On 31 Jan. 1913 the Institute received the decree of praise; on 3 Apr. 1940 definitive approval of the Constitutions. It currently has 82 houses with 515 sisters.
PICCOLE OPERAIE DEI SACRI CUORI DI GESÙ E MARIA.
Founded at Acri (diocese of Bisignano, Cosenza) by Fr. Francesco Maria Greco (d. 1931) and the pious Miss Raffaela De Vinenti (d. 1936).
The Institute also admits Italo-Albanian members of the Greek rite, who preserve their rite and form a separate section within the Institute. The Decree of praise and temporary approval of the Constitutions is dated 12 Dec. 1931; definitive approval on 7 July 1940. The Institute’s purposes include educating and instructing youth, especially the poor and orphaned; attending to domestic duties in seminaries and ecclesiastical colleges; caring for the sick in hospitals and at home, and the elderly in poorhouses. In 1949 the sisters numbered 205 in 40 houses.