DIVINE
52
DIVINE
Gozzo. The sisters have charge of educational insti-
tutions, orphanages, hospitals, and insane asylums.
Daughters of Divine Charity, founded at Vienna, 21 November, 1.S6S, by Franzislca Lechner (d. 1S94) on the Rule of St. .\ugustine, and approved by the Holy See in 18S-1 and definitively confirmed 22 July, 1891. The purpose of the congregation is to furnish girls without positions, shelter, care and the means of obtaining a position, without compensation, likewise to care for servants no longer able to work. The sis- ters are also engaged in schools, orphan asylums, and kindergartens. The mother-house and novitiate are at Vierma; the congregation has 36 filial houses, 766 sisters, and 59 postulants.
F. M. RUDGE.
Divine Compassion, Institute op the, founded in the City of Xew York, U. S. A., by the Rt. Rev. Thomas Stanislaus Preston. On 8 September, 1869, Father Preston began a semi-weekly gathering of the poor and abject children of the street in one of the most WTetched quarters of the city; after this came the opening of a house for the reformation of young girls not yet hardened in vice, and the preservation of children and older girls from the moral danger in which they lived. The founder called it the House of the Holy Family and became its spiritual director. The work was fostered by many prominent Catholic ladies of New York, under the name of The Association for Befriending Cliildren and Young Girls. Foremost among these ladies was Mrs. Mary C. D. Starr (in relig- ion Mother Veronica; d. at White Plains, 9 Aug., 1904), who became the president of the association and devoted all her time and energies to this work of charity under the direction of Father Preston. Seeing the necessity of a religious community which should be trained to this work and perpetuate it, Father Preston compiled a rule of life for those who desired to devote their lives to it. The first draft was written .5 Septem- ber, 1873, and was observed in its elemental form until 1886, when it was elaborated and obtained the infor- mal approbation of the Archbishop of New York. The constitutions, which are an enlargement of the rule, and represent the norm of hving in the institute, were written gradually, as it developed, and reached their completion in 1899. On the 29th of September, 1900, Ijoth rule and constitutions received the express canon- ical ajiprobation of Archbishop Corrigan of New York. The object of the institute is (1) the reformation of erring girls; and (2) the training, religious, mental, and industrial of girls in moral danger from ignorance, indolence, or waywardness, or dangerous influences. The institute is composed of two classes, choir sisters and little (or lay) sisters. In addition to the House of the Holy Family the sisters are in charge of a training school for girls at White Plains, and a working-girls' home in New York City. The institute comprises about 40 sisters in charge of 215 girls.
Divine OfiBce. See Office.
Divine Providence, Sisters op. — I. Sisters of Divine Provide.vce of St. Vincent de Paul, founded at Molsheim, in the Diocese of Strasburg, by Vicar Ludwig Ivremp (1783). After the Revolution the community reassembled at Bindernheim and, in 1807, received both ecclesiastical and civil approba- tion, the former from the Archbishop of Strasburg, the latter from Napoleon I. In 1819 the mother-house was definitely located at Rappoltsweiler, and in 1869 the institute received papal confirmation. The con- gregation has (1908) 1800 members, over 1200 of them teachers in 357 primary schools of .4lsace. The sisters have over 44,000 cliildren under instruction; they conduct boarding and day schools, orphan asylums, reformatories, a housekeeping school, a liigh school for girls, and a deaf and dumb institution. Attached to
the novitiate are a teacher's seminary and practice
school.
II. The Society op Divine Providence, founded, in 1842, at St. Mauritz near Mtinster by Eduard Miche- lis, chaplain and private secretary to Archbishop Droste zu Vischering of Cologne. He shared the im- prisonment of his archbishop and on his return went to St. Mauritz, where, with the help of two other priests, he founded an orphan asylum. He selected several teachers whom he sent to the Sisters of Divine Providence at Rappoltsweiler to be trained in the religious life. The rule followed there was adopted with a few alterations by the new community and re- ceived episcopal approbation. The congregation took as its special work the care of poor, neglected, and orphaned children, as well as teaching in general. In 1878 the work of the sisters was interrupted by the Kulturkampf, and they were forced to take refuge at Steyl, Holland. In 1887, when they resumed their work in Germany, the mother-liouse was removed to Friedrichsburg near Miinster, where a boarding and a trade school were opened. In the city of Munster the sisters have charge of the domestic management of five episcopal institutions, and in the city and diocese they conduct boarding schools, orphan asylums, pro- tectories, trade schools, elementary schools, Sunday schools, a working-women's home (Rheine), and a Magdalen asylum (at Marienburg). In Bremen they direct an elementary school, Sunday school, and or' phanage. This congregation has 50 branch houses in Germany, and 14 in Holland, among the latter the convent of St. Joseph at Steyl, that of Maria-Roepaan at Ottersum, and of St. Aloysius at Kessel. In 1895 a colony of sisters went to Brazil, where they now have six institutions. The congregation numbers (1908) 1115 members. F. M. Rudge.
III. SistersopDivineProvidence, founded at Fin- then near Mainz (whence they are sometimes called the Finthen Sisters) in 1851 by Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von Ketteler. 'The first superior was sent to the Sisters of Divine Providence at Ribeauvdllee, .\lsace, to be formed in the religious life, and the rule followed there was made the basis of the new mstitute, which later received the papal approbation. The congrega- tion was founded primarily for the work of teaching and for the care of the sick so far as consonant with their duties as teachers. The right of corporation was not obtained until 1858, but as early as 1856 the Finthen Sisters had charge of the orphan asylum of Neustadt. At the time of the Kulturkampj they had 24 foundations in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. When they were allowed to resume their activities they de- voted themselves less to purely educational work and took charge of hospitals, children's asylums, homes for girls, industrial and housekeeping schools, orphan asy- lums, servants' homes, endowed infirmaries, and alms- houses. Connected with the mother-house at Mainz are 76 branch houses with 730 members, 70 in the Diocese of Mainz, and 6 in that of Limburg. In Mainz the sisters conduct a boarding school with housekeeping and trade courses. At Oberursel they direct the Johannesstijt for abandoneil children founded by Johannes Janssen. Wherever these sis- ters have houses they care for the sick in their homes.
IV. Sisters op Divine Providence, mother-house at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., founded in 1876 by six sisters from Mainz (see III), who were later joined by other sisters from Mainz. 'The congregation now numbers about 200, in charge of 20 schools in the Diocese of Pittsburg, one in the Wheeling, and 2 in the Columbus, Diocese.
Sister M. Theresia.
Divine Providence, Congregation op the Sis- ters OF, founded in Lorraine, 1762, by the Venerable Jean-Martm Moye (b. 1730; d. 1793), priest of the
