The Order of the Most Holy Redeemer (; abbreviated OSsR), also commonly known as the Redemptoristines, is a female contemplative religious order of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. It was formed in 1731, and is the female counterpart to the

Redemptorists The Redemptorists officially named the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer ( la, links=no, Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris), abbreviated CSsR,is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men (priests and brother ...

History

The cradle of the Redemptoristines is Scala, not far from

Amalfi Amalfi (, , ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Salerno, in the region of Campania, Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno. It lies at the mouth of a deep ravine, at the foot of Monte Cerreto (1,315 metres, 4,314 feet), surrounded by dramati ...

, Italy. Thomas Falcoia, of the Congregation ''Pii Operarii'', formed a community of

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

s there and gave them a rule. Later he became Bishop of Castellammare. He was director of

Alphonsus Liguori Alphonsus Liguori, CSsR (27 September 1696 – 1 August 1787), sometimes called Alphonsus Maria de Liguori or Saint Alphonsus Liguori, was an Italian Catholic bishop, spiritual writer, composer, musician, artist, poet, lawyer, scholastic philoso ...

when a new rule was said to have been revealed to Sister Maria Celeste Crostarosa in a vision. The bishop favoured the rule and asked Alphonsus to give the nuns the spiritual exercises and to organize the community as he judged best. The congregation was founded as an order of contemplative nuns."About the Order", Redemptoristine Nuns, Ligouri, Missouri
/ref> Alphonsus set up observance of the new rule by meditation on the life and virtues of Christ. The details of their daily life were to commemorate phases of His life. They were to pray in a special manner for the apostolic works of the

. The institute began on 23 May 1731. A second monastery was founded by Alphonsus, when bishop, in his episcopal city,

Sant'Agata de' Goti Sant'Agata de' Goti is a ''comune'' (municipality) and former Catholic bishopric in the Province of Benevento in the Italian region Campania, located about 35 km northeast of Naples and about 25 km west of Benevento near the Monte Taburn ...

. The rule was approved by Benedict XIV in 1750. Nearly a hundred years after the foundation at Scala, Joseph Passerat sent two ladies, Mlle. Eugénie Dijon and the Countess Welsersheim, to Sant'Agata dei Goti to learn the rule and spirit of the Redemptoristines. They received the habit at Rome from Cardinal Carlo Odescalchi. They founded houses at Vienna and Bruges. In

São Fidélis São Fidélis () is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, an ...

, Brazil, there still exists a traditional monastery of the Redemptoristines that continues the original Rules and Constitutions with the approval of the Holy See.

Present day

As of 2021, there are forty monasteries and communities of the institute in Angola, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Brazil, Burkina-Faso, Canada, Columbia, France, Germany, Haiti, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Thailand, the United States, and Venezuela."Monasteries and communities", CSSR nuns
/ref> Community life is centered around the celebration of

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

and the

liturgy of the hours The Liturgy of the Hours (Latin: ''Liturgia Horarum'') or Divine Office (Latin: ''Officium Divinum'') or ''Opus Dei'' ("Work of God") are a set of Catholic prayers comprising the canonical hours, often also referred to as the breviary, of the ...

. Part of their support derives from sewing ceremonial capes for the Knights and Ladies of the Holy Sepulcher. The first Redemptoristines monastery in the United States, Our Mother of Perpetual Help, was established in 1957 on the grounds of the Redemptorists’ seminary of Mount St. Alphonsus, in

Esopus, New York Esopus ( ) is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 9,041 at the 2010 census. The town was named after the local indigenous tribe and means "small river" in English. They were one of the Lenape (Delaware) bands, b ...

. When the property was sold, the nuns relocated to Beacon, New York where they share a monastery with the Carmelites.

Habit

Their traditional habit is deep red, and the scapular and choir-mantle blue, on the scapular there is a coloured medallion of the Most Holy Redeemer. The 15-decade rosary hangs at the side bearing a medal upon one side of which are embossed the emblems of the Saviour's passion. The nuns wear two veils: one white and another black, folded back over the head, but which may be drawn forward over the face and as far as the medallion on the scapular. Some houses wear a modified habit of a red dress, a black veil and a medal of the Holy Redeemer on one side and St. Alphonsus on the other that is suspended on a chain.

References

External links

*{{Official website
Redemptoristine pictures and necrologiesRedemptorisine Nuns Dublin, Ireland
Catholic female orders and societies pl:Redemptorystki