Missionary Sisters of St. Peter Claver
MISSIONARY SISTERS OF ST. PETER CLAVER
(SSPC, Official Catholic Directory #3990); also known as the Sodality of St. Peter Claver for the African Missions; a congregation with papal approbation (1910) founded by Countess Maria Theresia ledÓchowska in 1894 for the purpose of giving help to the African missions, especially by means of the apostolate of the press. Countess Ledóchowska, encouraged by Cardinal Charles lavigerie, had begun to publish in 1889 the magazine African Echo (later published in eight languages) and had founded an association of lay persons called The Anti-Slavery Committee. Instructions received from Leo XIII in 1894 led her to found the sodality, which was first approved as a diocesan congregation by Cardinal Johannes Haller, archbishop of Salzburg, Austria, in 1897. As the number of religious increased, a house with a well-equipped polyglot press was opened at Salzburg; later, other houses were established in various nations and in Rome, where the generalate is located. The sisters established their first foundation in the U.S. in 1912. The U.S. headquarters is in Chesterfield, MO.
[p. molinari/eds.]