A religious congregation having its general mother house at Rome, founded in 1880 by Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini, who is still living. The aim of the institute is to spread devotion to the Heart of Jesus by means of the practice of spiritual and corporal works of mercy. The sisters conduct homes for the aged and the sick, orphanages, industrial schools, sewing classes; they visit hospitals and prisons, and give religious instruction in their convents, which are open to women desirous of making retreats. The congregation has spread rapidly in Europe and America. In 1899, at the suggestion of Leo XIII, the sisters came to New York, and have since opened convents in the Dioceses of Brooklyn, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Newark, Scranton, and Seattle. At the beginning of 1911 the institute had in the United States : 253 sisters ; 11 schools with 4850 pupils; 6 orphanages with 713 orphans ; 2 hospitals with about 3520 patients annually; and 1 dispensary where 21,630 persons were treated during the preceding years.

This congregation is to be distinguished from the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, founded by Father Hubert Linckens, provincial of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart , Hiltrup, near Munster, on 3 August, 1899, and approved episcopally in 1900. The latter sisters are engaged teaching in New Guiana, New Pomerania, and the Marshall Islands, in the districts confided to the care of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.

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