Sacred Heart (Bergamo), Daughters of the
SACRED HEART (BERGAMO), DAUGHTERS OF THE
(Congregatio Filiarum Sacri, Cordis Jesu, FSCJ); founded in 1831 at Bergamo, Italy, by Teresa Verzeri and Canon Giuseppe Benaglio (1767–1836). This religious congregation began during a period of great political, social, and religious unrest, and aimed to revive faith and reduce social conflicts by means of the education of women and girls. Misunderstood by the local bishop, the Daughters withdrew to the adjoining Diocese of Brecia two months after receiving papal approbation (1841). Pius IX approved the constitutions (1847). During the disturbances of 1848, blamed on the Jesuits who were advisers to the foundress, the civil power threatened to suppress the congregation. After this followed peaceful progress, slow but constant. Since 1919 there has been no distinction of grades among the religious. The generalate is in Rome.
Bibliography: Annali della Congregazione (Rome 1902). d. t. donadoni, Teresa Verzeri (Turin 1964).
[d. t. donadoni/eds.]