Maestre Pie Venerini

The other day I was dropping Max off at school and one of the nuns said to me, "your laugh always makes me think of one of our sisters in America." I was surprised to learn that the nuns of the same following also had a convent in Massachusetts. So I decided to look into the Maestre Pie Venerini and discovered some interesting things.

In English, these nuns are referred to as the Venerini Sisters. They are followers of Rosa Venerini, born in Viterbo in 1656. They even have a website and Facebook page!

Rosa Venerini founded the first public school for women in Italy. In her lifetime she trained other teachers and opened a total of 40 schools throughout Italy. She died in Rome 1728, was beatified in 1952, and canonized in 2006.

(No, by the way, she's not "Santa Rosa" from the festival in September...as Max hoped!)

According to Wikipedia, in 1909 the Sisters expanded their work to the United States, their first foreign site, going at the invitation of a pastor in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to help with the influx of Italian immigrants. They arrived there on November 28, 1909, and opened the first day care program in the state. From there, they were invited to serve in other other parishes in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and in the Diocese of Albany in New York.

Rosa Venerini of Viterbo