Founded in 1484 at Toledo, Spain, by Saint Beatrice of Silva, sister of Blessed Amadeus of Portugal. On the marriage of Princess Isabella of Portugal with King John II of Castile, Beatrice had accompanied the queen to the court of her husband, but her great beauty having aroused the jealousy of the queen, she escaped with difficulty and took refuge in the Dominican convent at Toledo. Here for forty years she led a life of holiness, without becoming a member of the Order. Inspired by an apparition of the Virgin Mary to found a new congregation in her honour, Beatrice of Silva, with some companions, took possession of a convent (the Convent of the Order of the Immaculate Conception) set apart for them by Queen Isabella I of Castile in Toledo.
In 1489, by permission of Pope Innocent VIII, the sisters adopted the Cistercian rule, bound themselves to the daily recitation of the Office of the Immaculate Conception, and were placed under obedience to the ordinary of the archdiocese. In 1501, Pope Alexander VI united this congregation with the Benedictine community of San Pedro de las Duenas, under the Rule of St. Clare, but in 1511 Julius II gave it a rule of its own, and in 1616 special constitutions were drawn up for the congregation by Cardinal Francisco de Quiñones.
The second convent was founded in 1507 at Torrigo, from which, in turn, were established seven others. The congregation soon spread through Portugal, Spain, Italy, and France. The foundress determined on the habit, which was white, with a white scapular and blue mantle.
The foundress, Beatrice of Silva Menezes (sometimes cited as "Brites") (1424–90), was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1976; her feast day is 1 September.
Mission Priests of the Immaculate Conception (usually called Missionaries of Rennes)
The new congregation was placed under simple vows, the aims proposed being the defence of the Faith, the education of youth, and the giving of missions. A house of studies was erected at Malestroit, near Ploërmel, and placed under the direction of Fathers Blanc and Rohrbacher, while Lamennais remained at La Chênaie, with the younger members, writing for them his "Guide de la jeunesse", and for others more advanced the "Journée du chrétien". Lamennais's project of forming a body of priests thoroughly equipped for pressing needs in the Church of France, a scheme which he outlined in 1825 in a letter to M. de Salinis, seemed well on the way towards fulfilment. A vivid picture of the rule of life and the spirit of La Chênaie is to be found in the letters of Maurice de Guerin, whose companions were such men as Olympe-Philippe Gerbet, Prosper Guéranger, Jean-Joseph Gaume, Bruno Dominique de Scorbiac, and Charles Sainte-Foi.
The condemnation of L'Avenir disturbed only temporarily the activity of La Chénaie. On the final defection of Félicité, however, the Bishop of Rennes transferred to Jean-Marie the superiorship of the congregation, the members of which left La Chênaie for Malestroit, laymen being now excluded. The congregation, reorganized, gained a new lease of life in 1837 and by 1861 had 200 members in nine houses, under the mother-house at Rennes.
The priests of the Immaculate Conception got charge of three congregations at Constantinople, one at Feri-kuei, for Georgians and Armenians, another for the Latins at Scutari, and a third for Georgian Greek Catholics at Pera.[citation needed]
Candidates for the priesthood were ordained in Saratov by the Bishop of Tiraspol, who was the ecclesiastical superior of the Catholic Church in Georgia; for a time they filled parish duties as secular priests, after which they were appointed by the congregation to a post where they might minister to their countrymen.[citation needed]
The Sister Servites of the Immaculate Conception conduct two primary schools, to which children are admitted, without distinction of creed.[citation needed]
Founded at Jodoigne, in 1833, definitively established at Champion near Namur (also in Belgium) in 1836, by Canon Jean-Baptiste-Victor Kinet, for the instruction of children, the care of orphan asylums and the service of the sick and prisoners.
In 1858 the congregation received the approbation of the Apostolic See, and shortly afterwards the confirmation of its statutes. By 1876 there were 150 convents in Belgium, England, Italy and the United States. The mother-house is at Champion.
A branch of the Association of the Holy Family of Bordeaux, founded in France in 1820 by Pierre-Bienvenu Noailles, a canon of that city, who conceived the idea of founding a congregation in which Christians of every class of life might lead a life of perfection. In 1820 he placed the first three members of the Holy Family in a house at Bordeaux, under the name of the Ladies of Loreto. As the numbers increased the sisters were divided by their founder into two categories: (1) Those engaged directly in the various works undertaken by the Institute; (2) Lay sisters who perform household duties, and are called the Sisters of St. Martha. These are sub-divided into three branches: (a) The Sisters of St. Joseph who undertake the charge of orphans; (b) The Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, who devote themselves to educational work; (c) The Sisters of Hope, who nurse the sick. The Institute encountered much opposition at first, but the constitutions have now been canonically approved by the Holy See. The works of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception are numerous; they devote themselves to educational work and visiting the poor.
The habit in England only is blue with a white girdle and a black veil. In Ireland they have one house in the Archdiocese of Armagh at Magherafelt, and another in Kildare, to both of which schools are attached. The institute has novitiate houses at Bordeaux, France; Bas-Oha, Liège, Belgium; Hortaleza, Madrid, Spain; Bellair, Natal, South Africa; Montreal, Canada; and two in Asia. Besides the novitiates there are juniorates attached to some of the convents. There is one at Lozère, Mende, France, and one at Liège, Belgium, and one at Fromista, Spain.
Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (Louisiana)
Twenty years after Pope Pius IX's Apostolic Constitution, Ineffabilis Deus, the Archdiocese of New Orleans's second indigenous religious congregation of women was founded, as the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. They were founded in Labadieville, Louisiana, by the French-born Reverend Cyprien Venissat and Miss Adelaide Elvina Vienne. A former school-teacher, she took the veil (as Mother Mary of the Immaculate Conception, CIC) from the Most Reverend Napoléon-Joseph Perché, on 11 July 1874. Mother Mary died in 1885, at the age of 48.
Their habit consisted of a black tunic and a blue scapular in honor of the Virgin Mary.
The Community was a teaching order among the young in the State of Louisiana. Following the Second Vatican Council, however, the order's ranks dwindled (as with so many other communities) and by 3 January 2023, there was only one living member, Sister Jerome.
The former Immaculate Conception Convent, 3037 Dauphine Street, New Orleans, in 2009.
In the 2007 film, The Church on Dauphine Street (by Ann Hedreen and Rustin Thompson), their former mother-house, the Immaculate Conception Convent, is featured. Built in 1932, it is now the St Gerard Majella Center and Archdiocesan Deaf Ministry. The film traces its restoration following the catastrophic Hurricane Katrina.
Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of Mary (originally from Spain)
The First Saturdays Devotion, also called the Act of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Catholic devotion which, according to Sister Lúcia of Fátima, was requested by the Virgin Mary in an apparition at Pontevedra, Spain, in December 1925. This devotion has been approved by the Roman Catholic Church.
The Servite Order, officially known as the Order of Servants of Mary, is one of the five original Catholic mendicant orders. It includes several branches of friars, contemplative nuns, a congregation of active religious sisters, and lay groups. The order's objectives are the sanctification of its members, the preaching of the Gospel, and the propagation of devotion to the Mother of God, with special reference to her sorrows. The Servites friars lead a community life in the tradition of the mendicant orders.
The Catholic Church in Georgia, since the 11th-century East–West Schism, has been composed mainly of Latin Church Catholics; a very large community of the Armenian Catholic Church has existed in Georgia since the 18th century.
The Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary (Spanish: Religiosas de la Beata Virgen María, abbreviated RVM, is a Roman Catholic centralized religious institute of consecrated life of Pontifical Right for women founded in Manila in 1684 by the Filipina Venerable Mother Ignacia del Espíritu Santo.
The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM), founded as the Daughters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Catholic religious teaching institute for women. The institute was founded in the Catalan city of Olot, (Spain) in 1848 by Father Joaquim Masmitjà i de Puig as a means of rebuilding society through the education of young women. A daughter house of the community was founded in Los Angeles, California, United States, in 1871, and in 1924 formally separated from the Spanish congregation and was established as a distinct institute.
The Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary are a Roman Catholic religious congregation. They were founded at Marijampolė, Lithuania, by Archbishop George Matulaitis, MIC on October 15, 1918.
The Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary is a Catholic male clerical religious congregation founded, 1670, in Poland. It is also known as Marians of the Immaculate Conception. Its members add the post-nominal letters M.I.C. after their names to indicate membership in the Congregation.
The Order of the Immaculate Conception, abbreviated OIC and also known as the Conceptionists, is a Catholic religious order of Pontifical Right for women founded by Saint Beatrice of Silva. For some years, they followed the Poor Clares Rule, but in 1511 they were recognized as a separate religious order, taking a new rule and the name of Order of the Immaculate Conception.
The Third Order of Saint Francis is a third order in the Franciscan tradition of Christianity, founded by the medieval Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi.
Jean-Marie Robert de La Mennais, FICP was a Breton Catholic priest and brother of the philosopher Felicité Robert de Lamennais, whom he influenced in their youth. He was a leading figure in the revival of the Catholic Church in France after the French Revolution, involved in founding three religious institutes as part of this effort.
A patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a form of spiritual protection attributed to Mary, mother of Jesus, in favor of some occupations, activities, religious orders, congregations, dioceses, and geographic locations.
Georgian Byzantine Rite Catholics, or members of the Georgian Greek Catholic Church, are Catholics from the Georgian people who practice the Byzantine Rite in Old Georgian, which is also the liturgical language of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
Beatrice of Silva, born Beatriz de Menezes da Silva, was a Portuguese noblewoman who became the foundress of the monastic Order of the Immaculate Conception. Amadeus of Portugal's younger sister, she is honored as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.
Worldwide The Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of the oldest lay apostolates still operating in the Roman Catholic Church, having been part of the Congregation of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception founded by Stanislaw Papczynski. "The Blessed Marian Founder fervently encouraged his spiritual sons to establish confraternities of the Immaculate Conception at Marian churches. 'The first laws of the Order of 1694-1698 speak of this already."
The Franciscan Hospitaller Sisters of the Immaculate Conception are members of a Roman Catholic religious institute of consecrated women, which was founded in Portugal in 1871. They follow the Rule of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis. and, as the term “hospitaller” indicates, focus their ministries on a spirit of medical care. Their charism emphasizes hospitality and service under the model of the Good Samaritan. In this congregation, the postnominal initials used after each sister's name is "F.H.I.C."
Maria Clara of the Child Jesus — born Libânia do Carmo Galvão Mexia de Moura Telles de Albuquerque was a Portuguese Roman Catholic professed religious who established the Franciscan Hospitaller Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in Lisbon. She led the congregation as its superior.
Peter Kharischirashvili was a Georgian Catholic hieromonk, theologian, scientist and founder of the Servites of the Immaculate Conception.
References
↑ Zugger (2001). The Forgotten: Catholics of the Soviet Union Empire from Lenin through Stalin. p.213.
The Catholic Church in Louisiana, by Roger Baudier, New Orleans, 1939.
Guide to the Catholic Sisterhoods in the United States, edited by Thomas P. McCarthy, CSV, The Catholic University of America Press, 1964. ISBN0-8132-1312-6
Spicing Ecclesiastical Gumbo: The Life of Napoléon-Joseph Perché, by William Lemuel Greene, Claitor's Publishing Division, 2012. ISBN1-59804-636-5
Blessed Francis Seelos Xavier Seelos Church: Celebrating 150 Years of the Former St Vincent de Paul Church, by the Very Reverend José I. Lavastida Mata, Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos Parish, 2015.
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