Redemptoristines

The cradle of the Redemptoristines is Scala, not far from Amalfi, Italy. Father Thomas Falcoia, of the Congregation Pii Operarii, formed a community of nuns there and gave them a rule. Later he became Bishop of Castellammare. He was director of St. Alphonsus when a new rule was said to have been revealed to Sister Maria Celeste Crosterosa. The bishop favoured the rule and asked Alphonsus to give the nuns the spiritual exercises and to organize the community as he judged best for the glory of God. The saint disposed them for the observance of the new rule by meditation on the life and virtues of Christ. The details of their daily life were to commemorate phases of His life. Zeal was to be exercised by prayer, each day of the week being devoted to an object affecting the well-being of the Church, They were to pray in a special manner for the apostolic works of the Redemptorists. The habit is deep red, and the scapular and choir-mantle blue. The institute began on 23 May, 1731. A second monastery was founded by St. Alphonsus, when bishop, in his episcopal city, St. Agatha of the Goths. Nearly a hundred years after the foundation at Scala, the Ven. Joseph Passerat sent two ladies, Mlle. Eugénie Dijon and the Countess Welsersheim, to St. Agatha to learn the rule and spirit of the Redemptoristines. They received the habit at Rome from Cardinal Odescalchi. They founded houses at Vienna and Bruges. Convents of the institute now exist in Austria, Bavaria, Belgium, France, Holland, Ireland, England, the Tyrol, Spain, and Canada. The rule was approved by Benedict XIV in 1750. (See ALPHONSUS LIGUORI, SAINT; PASSERAT, VENERABLE JOSEPH.)

DUMORTIER, Les premières rédemptoristines (Bruges, 1884) contains a notice on the institute; HUGUES, Vies de deux religieuses rédemptoristines (Tournai, 1884); DUMORTIER, Fleurs de l'institut des rédemptoristines (Tournai, 1910); Beat. et canoniz. S. D. Sororis Mariœ Celeste Crosterosa.

J. Magnier.