RELIGIOSE INSEGNANTI DI MARIA IMMACOLATA. — Founded in 1852 by Antonia Paris de S. Pedro in Santiago de Cuba.
The nuns, who take solemn vows and observe papal enclosure, devote themselves to the teaching and Christian education of girls. On 24 Aug. 1920, the various houses, until then independent and modeled on the ancient monasteries, were united into a single congregation with a superior general and central government in Madrid. The Holy See granted the decree of praise in 1869 and approved the Institute, with the definitive confirmation of the Constitutions, on 22 March 1901. Today the nuns number 291 in 31 houses.
BIBL.: Arch. S. Congr. dei Religiosi, U. 3; F. Husu, S. An. M. Claret, Roma 1950, pp. 339–46. Candido Bona