Mantellate Sisters

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MANTELLATE SISTERS

Also called Servants of Mary (OSM), they were founded in 1861 by Sisters M. Filomena Rossi and M. Giovanni Ferrari in Treppio, Italy. They chose as their model St. Juliana falconieri, the traditional foundress of the several communities of Servite Sisters (see servants of mary). The motherhouse of the congregation, a pontifical institute, was transferred to Pistoia and later to Rome. The Mantellate Sisters are engaged in kindergartens, elementary and high schools, colleges, hospitals, orphanages, homes for the aged and for working girls, and catechetical and social work. In 1913 the first house in the U.S. was established in Chicago, Ill., but the American motherhouse and novitiate are in Blue Island, Ill. The original foundation is known as the Mantellate Sisters of Blue Island (Official Catholic Directory #3570), with its headquarters in Blue Island, Ill. There is a separate branch, the Mantellate Sisters of Plainfield (Official Catholic Directory #3572), which was established in 1977. It has its headquarters in Plainfield, Ill.

[m. f. de mato/eds.]