UNION OF ST PAUL THE APOSTLE, PIOUS.—
A most deserving association founded in Rome in 1790 and canonically erected in 1797 in the archihospital of St Mary of Consolation.
Its purpose was to gather into a well-ordered body priests, clerics and also pious laymen desirous of dedicating themselves to spiritual and corporal charitable works, such as assisting the sick in hospitals or in private homes, religious instruction for the most abandoned classes of the city, the distribution of good books, etc. At the head of the P. U. stood a priest, called the Primary Regulator, assisted in directing the individual charitable works by other Secondary Regulators, two for each work. The priests and clerics gathered every fifteen days for a moral case and a brief instruction (a custom still observed in Rome at the initiative of the vicariate); the laity gathered, on the occasion of feast days, in the church of St Paul alla Regola, where they could approach the Holy Sacraments and hear an instruction suited to their mission. The Servant of God Fr B. Lanteri (v.) introduced it into Turin on 22 Feb. 1815, obtaining its aggregation to the primary in Rome.
UNION OF ST CATHERINE OF SIENA OF THE MISSIONARY SISTERS OF THE SCHOOL.—
Founded at Gubbio in 1924 by Luigia Tincani (Sister Mary of St Catherine).
They received the decree of praise from the Holy See on 6 Feb. 1934. The Constitutions were approved provisionally on 7 Feb. 1935. The religious, who do not wear a monastic habit, devote themselves to teaching in public schools and have colleges for the formation of young women. At present the sisters number 150 in 9 houses. The Generalate is in Rome. (Arch. of the S. Congr. of Religious, G. 70). Silverio Mattei