Sisters of the Company of Mary, Our Lady
- Rome, Italy
The Sisters of the Company of Mary, Our Lady are the members of a Roman Catholic religious order founded by Jeanne de Lestonnac (1556-1640) in France in 1607. The Order's mission is education, focused on the person in all their uniqueness. The members of the Order use the initials O.D.N. (Latin: Ordinis Dominae Nostrae) after their names.
History
Founding
De Lestonnac was born into a prominent family of Bordeaux in 1556. At the age of 17 she married and had eight children. She was widowed after 24 years of marriage. After a brief period as Cistercian nun, she envisioned the establishment of a new kind of religious community, whose essential task would availability to all those in need, most especially for the education of girls.
In 1605, during an outbreak of plague broke in Bordeaux, De Lestonnac helped care for the sick. A number of young women indicated a willingness to join her. During this period, she became acquainted with Ignatian spirituality through contact with several Jesuit priests. In 1607 the foundation gained the approval of Pope Paul V of a religious order dedicated to education, with the restrictions, however, of being organized along the Benedictine model, as an enclosed religious order of nuns, with each monastery to be independent. The community took the name of the Compagnie de Notre-Dame.[1] They were the first female teaching congregation to gain official approval in France.[2]
De Lestonnac and her followers received the religious habit of the new Order on 1 May 1608. The following year, the foundation received the approval of King Henry IV, allowing for expansion in the Kingdom of France. Five members of the new order completed their period of novitiate and took their religious vows on 10 December 1610, at which time the community established its first school for girls in Bordeaux.
Its houses tended to be located in towns served by Jesuit colleges.[2] Houses were established in Béziers, Poitiers, and Lu Puy (1618), Périgueux (1620), Angen (1621), La Flèche and Riom (1622).[1] By the time she died in 1640, at the age of 84, 30 monasteries of the Order existed in France.
Historically, they were also known as Les Filles de Notre-Dame[3] and the Sisters of Notre-Dame of Bordeaux.
Development
Ten years later, in 1650, the Sisters established a school in Barcelona, their first house outside France. During the 18th century, Order flourished in Spain and in its colonial domains in Latin America. The first school for women in the Americas was founded in Bogotá, Colombia. During the French Revolution the sisters in France were dispersed and some of them were put to death. A number of expatriate religious established new foundations in Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Mexico and California.[4]
In 1892, the Sisters came to Penzance, soon discovered that, as a semi-enclosed order, they were not really suited to the work of teaching in a parish school. With the Bishop's blessing, they left for London in 1895.[5]
Renewal
In 1920, 63 of the 90 monasteries of the Order voted to drop the monastic life and to unite in a single religious congregation of active Religious Sisters, in keeping with the vision of their foundress. The Sisters then changed their name from the Order of Mary to the Company of Mary, to complement the Company of Jesus, as the Jesuits are called in the Spanish of their founder, Ignatius de Loyola. They received the approval of Pope Benedict XV for this change. The next year a General Motherhouse for the united houses of the company was established in Rome. After the changes in canon law governing religious institutes resulting from the Second Vatican Council, the various independent monasteries of the Order united with the company.[6]
The celebration of the Feast of the Presentation of the Mary (21 November) is a particular tradition of the Company of Mary, Our Lady.[citation needed]
Current status
Today the Company of Mary numbers about 1,500 members working in over 400 teaching institutions in 26 nations across the world. These range from nurseries to university colleges and hospitals.[7] The Sisters of the Company see their work of education as involving the development of the whole person, possible in a range of settings. A large number of lay people, both women and men, have become a part of the work of Company in fulfilling its mission.[6]
References
- ^ a b Wright, Anthony D., The Divisions of French Catholicism, 1629–1645, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2013 ISBN 9781409482246
- ^ a b Rapley, Elizabeth. The Dévotes: Women and Church in Seventeenth-century France, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 1990 ISBN 9780773511019
- ^ Donnelly, John Patrick. "The Quest for Active Orders", Visions, Programs and Outcomes, (Thomas A. Brady; Heiko A. Oberman; James D. Tracy, eds.), Brill, 1994 ISBN 9789004097612
- ^ ""History of the Order of the Company of Mary, Our Lady"" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 October 2016. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
- ^ "History of the Roman Catholic Parish of Penzance"
- ^ a b "Historia de la Orden de Compañía de María" (PDF). Compañia de María, Nuestra Señora.(in Spanish)
- ^ "Cardinal celebrates 400 years of the Company of Mary Our Lady | Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster". Rcdow.org.uk. Retrieved 28 September 2012.
- v
- t
- e
and
female
- Alexians
- Assumptionists (AA)
- Augustinian Recollects (OAR)
- Basilian Aleppians (BA)
- Basilian Chouerites (BC)
- Benedictines (OSB)
- Bridgettines (OSsS)
- Canossians (FDCC)
- Carmelites (OCarm)
- Carthusians (OCart)
- Cistercians (OCist)
- Congregation of Our Lady of Sion (NDS)
- Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (SSCC)
- Discalced Carmelites (OCD)
- Dominicans (OP)
- Franciscans (OFM)
- Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE)
- Mercedarians (O de M)
- Missionaries of Charity (MC)
- Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo (CS)
- Monastic Family of Bethlehem, of the Assumption of the Virgin and of Saint Bruno
- Premonstratensians (OPraem)
- Servants of Charity (SC)
- Servite Order (OSM)
- Society of the Atonement (SA)
- TOR Franciscans
- Trappists (OCSO)
- Trinitarian Order (OSST)
- Adorno Fathers (CRM)
- Albertine Brothers
- Augustinians (OSA)
- Barnabites (B)
- Basilians (CSB)
- Brothers of Our Lady of Mercy (FDM)
- Camillians (MI)
- Canons Regular of Saint John Cantius
- Capuchins (OFM Cap)
- Christian Brothers (Irish) (CFC)
- Congregatio Discipulorum Domini (CDD)
- Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM)
- Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (SSS)
- Claretians (CMF)
- Congregation of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (CST)
- Conventual Franciscans (OFM Conv)
- Crosiers (OSC)
- De La Salle Brothers (FSC)
- Discalced Augustinians (OAD)
- Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFR)
- Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word (MFVA)
- Gabrielites
- Holy Cross (CSC)
- Holy Ghost Fathers (CSSp)
- Josephites (SSJ)
- Legionaries of Christ (LC)
- Little Brothers of Jesus
- Marians of the Immaculate Conception (MIC)
- Society of Jesus (Jesuits) (SJ)
- Society of Mary (Marianists) (SM)
- Society of Mary (Marists) (SM)
- Society of the Divine Word (SVD)
- Society of Saint Edmund (SSE)
- Marist Brothers (FMS)
- Mechitarists (CAM)
- Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus (MCCI)
- Missionaries of La Salette (MS)
- Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales (MSFS)
- Missionaries of the Poor (MOP)
- Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC)
- Missionaries of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
- Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI)
- Oblates of the Virgin Mary (OMV)
- Oblates of St. Francis de Sales (OSFS)
- Order of Friars Minor (OFM)
- Passionists (CP)
- Pauline Fathers (OSPPE)
- Redemptorists (CSsR)
- Rogationists of the Heart of Jesus (RCJ)
- Sacred Heart Brothers
- Salesians (SDB)
- Servants of Jesus and Mary (SJM)
- Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer (FSSR)
- Xaverian Brothers (CFX)
- Adorers of the Blood of Christ (ASC)
- Apostolic Carmel (AC)
- Basilian Aleppian Sisters
- Basilian Chouerite Sisters
- Brigidines
- Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (CSIC)
- Carmelite Sisters of Saint Teresa (CSST)
- Congregation of the Franciscan Hospitaller Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (FHIC)
- Daughters of Divine Love
- Daughters of Mary of the Immaculate Conception
- Daughters of the Holy Heart of Mary
- Faithful Companions of Jesus
- Felicians (CSSF)
- Filippini Sisters (MPF)
- Handmaids of the Heart of Jesus
- Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
- Hijas de Jesús
- Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters
- Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary
- Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb
- Little Sisters of Jesus
- Little Sisters of the Poor
- Living the Gospel Community (LGC)
- Lovers of the Holy Cross
- Marianites of Holy Cross (MSC)
- Maryknoll Sisters (MM)
- Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God (SMIC)
- Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (ICM)
- Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart
- Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC)
- Oblate Sisters of Providence
- Oblates of Jesus the Priest
- Oblate Sisters of the Virgin Mary of Fatima (OMVF)
- Order of Our Lady of Charity (ODNC)
- Order of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
- Poor Clares (OSC)
- Poor Clare Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament (MC)
- Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (RSCJ)
- Religious of the Virgin Mary (RVM)
- Servants of St. Joseph (SSJ)
- Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament
- Sisters of Charity
- Sisters of Charity of Saints Bartolomea Capitanio and Vincenza Gerosa (SCCG)
- Sisters of Christian Doctrine of Nancy (DC)
- Sisters of the Cross and Passion
- Sisters of the Destitute
- Sisters of the Good Shepherd (RGS)
- Sisters of Holy Cross
- Sisters of the Holy Cross
- Sisters of the Holy Family-Louisiana
- Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary
- Sisters of the Immaculate Conception
- Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
- Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
- Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
- Sisters of Life (SV)
- Sisters of Mercy (RSM)
- Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods
- Sisters of the Sacred Heart
- Sisters of Saint Francis
- Sisters of Saint Joseph
- The Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace
- Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart (RSJ)
- Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres (SPC)
- Society of the Helpers of the Holy Souls
- Sisters of Social Service (sss)
- Servants of the Blessed Sacrament (SSS)
- Ursulines (OSU)
- White Sisters
- See also: Third orders of Catholic laity
- Catholicism portal