POVERE FIGLIE DELLE STIMMATE DI SAN FRANCESCO. — Founded in Florence in 1848 by Anna Lapini dei Fiorelli.
Purpose: free Christian and religious education for poor and abandoned girls. The Institute was incorporated as a Third Order into the Franciscan Order, and its minister general became the official protector and adviser of the superior of the Stigmatic Sisters. Having spread to other regions, the Institute received the decree of praise on 23 July 1855 and definitive approval on 19 September 1888. It currently has 120 houses and 1,254 sisters.
POVERE FIGLIE DI MARIA S.ma INCORONATA. — Founded in Mantua in 1897 by the countess De Blasi dei Marchesi di Torrearsa.
She had begun the work in 1895 by distributing soup to some needy elderly poor people, to whom orphaned and abandoned girls were soon added. The work began to expand, and the countess acquired a first house, which she named «Povera Casa di S. Giuseppe» for abandoned children and the elderly. Approved by the diocesan bishop in 1900, the Institute obtained the approval of the Holy See on 30 April 1940. Since 1926, daytime adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has been practiced in the larger houses. The Congregation, spread throughout many parts of Italy, currently numbers 155 sisters in 18 houses.