POVERE SUORE DI NAZARET. – In 1850 Cardinal Wiseman, Archbishop of Westminster, conceived the idea of a hospice for the elderly similar to the French ones of the Little Sisters of the Poor.
On 10 April 1851, three of these sisters were invited and settled in Brook Green (Hammersmith). Once the initial difficulties had been overcome, new English vocations arose and the work spread throughout England. The cardinal wished the sisters in England, in addition to their charitable works for the elderly and the sick, also to establish orphanages for illegitimate and abandoned girls; but when the sisters who had come from France opposed this, he separated the English branch from the French one and constituted it as a true congregation in its own right, called P. S. di N. On 3 August 1883, the Institute received the decree of praise and definitive approval on 24 March 1888. At present, the sisters number 857, distributed among 59 houses.