The Institute of the Sisters of Charity of Saints

Bartolomea Capitanio Bartolomea Capitanio (13 January 1807 – 26 July 1833) was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious and the co-foundress of the Sisters of Charity of Lovere that she established with Vincenza Gerosa. Capitanio's rather short life was ded ...

and

Vincenza Gerosa Vincenza Gerosa (29 October 1784 – 29 June 1847) - born Caterina Gerosa - was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious and the co-foundress of the Sisters of Charity of Lovere that she founded alongside Bartolomea Capitanio. Gerosa met ...

(SCCG) also known as the Sisters of Maria Bambina (Sisters of Holy Child Mary) had its origins in a house which the people called "Conventino" (small convent) in

Lovere Lovere (Bergamasque: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Bergamo, in Lombardy, northern Italy, at the northwest end of Lake Iseo. The houses in the city have overhanging wooden roofs, typical of Switzerland, combined with the heavy s ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

."Who We Are", Sisters of Holy Child Mary
/ref> It was founded by a young woman of 26 named

in 1832. Bartolomea was helped in her project by Catherine Gerosa, a simple and wealthy lady of

who later took the name of Sister Vincenza, in honor of

St. Vincent de Paul Vincent de Paul, CM (24 April 1581 – 27 September 1660), commonly known as Saint Vincent de Paul, was a Occitan French Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving the poor. In 1622 Vincent was appointed a chaplain to the galleys. Afte ...

. Bartolomea died on 26 July 1833 just eight months after founding the Congregation. It was left to Catherine Gerosa, under the guidance of Father Bosio to carry on the work begun. Catherine was elected

Mother Superior An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic ...

and went on to serve as Sister Vincenza. She along with Fr. Bosio introduced their charitable service in prisons and went on to build hospitals for the needy. She died on 29 June 1847 after a long illness and was succeeded by Sister Crocifissa Rivellini. Bartolomea and Vincenza were both

canonized Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christianity, Christian communion declaring a person worthy of Cult (religious practice), public veneration and enterin ...

by the

Roman 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 ...

in the year 1950 by

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

. Vincenza's

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

is celebrated on 28 June. Today the institute has a worldwide presence with

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

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South-East Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

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Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

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History

Bartolomea Capitanio was born in

into a family of modest means. Her mother decided to send her to the boarding school of the

Poor Clares The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare ( la, Ordo sanctae Clarae) – originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and later the Clarisses, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis ...

at the age of 11 where she acquired a deep piety.Mosca SCCG, Vincenza. "Bartolomea Capitanio", Sisters of Holy Child Mary
/ref> She finished her education with the

when she was about 18. Soon she felt called and approached Fr. Angelo Bosio, her spiritual teacher for help. The approval of the

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...

, Gabrio Nava allowed Fr. Angelo Bosio and the parish priest, Father Rusticiano Barboglio to buy a house. This came to be known as the "Conventino" (small convent) from where the congregation's work began. About the same time Catherine Gerosa who had lost her family in rapid succession was left alone to manage the family business. She used her family’s money to provide charitable works in the community. Catherine became involved in her Church parish, organizing a women’s oratory with meetings and retreats, and founding a practical school to teach the poor girls of the community domestic work so as to improve their station in life. In one of these meetings, Catherine encountered

, and together they embarked on a new mission to start a hospital to care for those who could not afford medical care. After having accomplished this they decided to extend their mission to establish a special religious institute with the objectives of providing assistance to the sick, free education for girls, Christian orphanages, and programs designed to promote youth welfare. To accomplish this mission, together they founded the Sisters of Charity in 1824. Together they

consecrated Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

themselves to God in a simple ceremony on 21 November 1832 in the presence of Fr. Rusticiano and Fr. Angelo Bosio at the altar of the parish church of St. George in Casa Gaia. Thus began the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Lovere.

Maria Bambina

The wax image of ''Maria Bambina'' was modeled in 1735 by Sr. Isabella Chiara Formari, a Sister of the Poor Clares in Todi, Perugia. However devotion to the ''Divina Infantita'' pre-dates this. Over the main entrance of the Milan cathedral are the words in bronze letters: ''Mariae Nascenti'', meaning to the Infant Mary.�
Devotion to Maria Bambina
” ''All About Mary''. International Marian Research Institute, University of Dayton. Bishop Alberico Simonetta brought the waxen image of Maria Bambina to Milan on his return to his native town in 1738. In 1739 the image was entrusted to the Capuchin Sisters. In 1842 the image of the Infant Mary was donated to the sanctuario attached to the Sisters of Charity Generalate in Milan by the Franciscan Sisters of Todi. The image of the Maria Bambina was exposed for veneration only on 8 September, the Feast of Mary's Nativity. The Milanese began to call the sisters who staffed the Hospital of Ciceri the "Sisters of Maria Bambina". Beginning in 1884, various miracles were attributed to the image. It became the custom to offer newly married couples a wedding gift of a small wax image of Maria Bambina. The devotion to Maria Bambina spread from the Milan area to the whole of Italy.

Expansion

In Italy, where the Institute began in 1832, most of the communities founded were first in the Lombardo-Veneto region. Sisters were soon sent far outside Lovere and its neighbourhood, to care for orphans and girls: these were left to themselves in the wake of cholera and war, that marked the nineteenth century. The Community went to India in March 1860, where there developed 197 houses in eight provinces. In 1864 the sisters in India extended their work into what is now Bangladesh, where there are 18 communities. The sisters established the first of 31 communities in Myanmar in 1916."Sisters of charity of the saints bartolomea capitanio and vincenza gerosa (SCCG)", Archdiocese of Yangon
/ref>

References

External links

International Marian Research Institute
at the University of Dayton. The Institute, a leading center for research and scholarship on the Blessed Virgin Mary, has a vast presence in cyberspace.
Marian Library
at the University of Dayton. The Marian Library is the world’s largest repository of books, periodicals, artwork, and artifacts on Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ.

* ttp://www.sccg.in/index.php/ Official website of Sisters of Charity of Saints Bartolomea Capitanio and Vincenza Gerosa (SCCG) Indian Provinces {{Catholic congregation Catholic female orders and societies 1832 establishments in Italy