RELIGIOUS OF OUR LADY OF MERCY. - In 1864 Msgr. Charles Lavigerie founded in Nancy, where he was bishop, a women's institute for the education of girls, called 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 needs of the new field of work. To foster a more immediate dependence on the founder, the Mother House was transferred from Nancy to Aix-en-Provence. In 1885 the Institute was aggregated to 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 coadjutrix sisters. 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.

Bibliography

BIBL.: Arch. S. Congr. dei Relig., A. 41.

Candido Bona

@incollection{ec10_religiose_di_nostra_signora_de, author = {Bona, Candido}, title = {Religiose di Nostra Signora della Mercede}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {742}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/religiose-di-nostra-signora-della-mercede} }

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Religious Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy

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