POVERE ANCELLE DI GESÙ CRISTO. – Religious institute founded at Dernbach (Hesse) in 1848 by Maria Caterina Kasper for the instruction and education of young people and for the care of the sick in clinics and homes for the elderly. It was approved by the Holy See in 1870. As a result of the religious persecution of the Kulturkampf, the religious were forced into exile, thereby establishing their institute in other regions and in America as well. Today there are 284 houses with more than 4,000 sisters.
BIBL.: W. Meyer, Mutter Maria Kasper, Wisbaden 1937. Silverio Mattei