RELIGIOUS OF OUR LADY OF MERCY. - Mons. Carlo Lavigerie founded in 1864 at Nancy, where he was bishop, a female institute for the education of girls, known as the Sisters of the Assumption. Appointed archbishop of Algiers in 1867, he summoned some of them to join him, so that they might collaborate in his missionary apostolate.
The special purpose of the Institute was broadened in accordance with the requirements of the new field of work. In order to promote a more immediate dependence upon the founder, the Mother House was transferred from Nancy to Aix-en-Provence. In 1885 the Institute was affiliated with the Order of the Mercedarians and assumed its present name. The habit too was changed from black to white, similar to that of the Mercedarians. The sisters are divided into two classes: choir sisters and coadjutors. They obtained the decree of praise on 25 March 1912; the Constitutions were approved provisionally on 17 June 1931 and definitively on 6 May 1941. Today there are 200 sisters with 25 houses.