Company of St Ursula - Daughters of St Angela - Brescia

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Compagnia di S. Orsola
Via F. Crispi 20 - 25121 Brescia
Tel. 030297556 - fax 0302937092
mericiano@angelamerici.it
http://www.angelamerici.org
Casa Sant'Angela (luogo di accoglienza della Compagnia)
via Martinengo da Barco 4 - 25121 Brescia
Tel. e fax 030 47230
casa@angelamerici.it
History
Saint Angela Merici (1474-1540) founded the Company of Saint Ursula in Brescia in 1535, with the aim of bringing together women who wanted to consecrate themselves to God and promised to follow chastity, poverty, and obedience without retiring to a convent, but living in the world, devoting themselves to an apostolate among young women. The followers of Saint Angela were neither nuns nor wives: in fact they lived their virginal consecration at home: Saint Angela gave to the new institute a Rule which was approved by Pope Paul III in 1544.
The Company spread everywhere in the following centuries, but in 1810 it was suppressed, affected by the Napoleonic laws concerning religious institutions. However the Merician spirit did not wane, but was carried on unofficially, in a private way, by those Daughters who went on living their ideal of dedication to God without any external organization, waiting for better times.
The opportunity to restore the Company occurred shortly after the middle of the nineteenth century, when two Brescian sisters, Elisabetta (1839-1919) and Maddalena Girelli (1887-1923), wishing to consecrated themselves to God in a convent, were unable to realize this vocation for family reasons. On the suggestion of their spiritual director, Father Giuseppe Chiarini, they formed a small group of young women who consecrated themselves to God under the protection of the Madonna and called themselves "Daughters of Mary Immaculate" (1864). The women adopted an outline of regulations in a few pages, based on the rule composed by a Genoese priest, Father Giuseppe Frassinetti (1804-1868), who, in 1856, had founded The Pious Union of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate" under the protection of Saint Angela Merici and Saint Ursula, for the education of young women.
The first meeting of the Girellis' group was on April 4, 1864, in the chapel of the Teaching Sisters of Saint Dorothy in Brescia, where they were welcomed by the superior, Sister Marina Marini. The Brescian group wanted to have canonically approved features; they expressed their desire to Brescia's Bishop Gerolamo Verzieri, through Father Chiarini. The bishop replied that, if they wanted to form an association for prayer, they did not need any approval, but when they asked to profess the evangelical counsels though living in the world, he would not wrong Saint Angela, in her own city, by recognizing any institute other than the historic Company of Saint Ursula.
The Girelli sisters were charged by Verzieri to study the primitive Rule of the Company in order to adapt it to the new needs of their times, faithful to the charism. On June 13, 1866, the bishop issued the decree of the restoration of the Company of Saint Ursula.
On July 29, 1866, in a ceremony where Verzieri presided in the chapel of the Sisters of Saint Dorothy, fifty-eight women gathered and promised to observe the Rule of Saint Ursula. Maddalena Girelli was the superior, her sister Elisabetta the teacher of the novices, Father Chiarini the Father Superior.
From then on, the Girellis' activity was completely devoted to supporting the works of the Company and to forming groups of Daughters in the different parish churches of the diocese. They grew so numerous that in 1900 there were about 3000. The groups of Daughters distinguished themselves for their apostolic spirit and their help in the parishes; they taught catechism, devoted themselves to charitable works, kept up the churches, aided the priests, and managed women's oratories.
The Daughters were also involved in works founded or supported by the Girelli sisters: the boarding home in Marone for young women workers in the local silk factory (1878); the orphanage of Carpenedolo (1886); Angelini, the orphanage of Pontevico (1879); the nursery school of Borgo Poncarale (1900); work supporting devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and for impoverished churches (1881) and other works. The Girelli sisters also supported the missions, the "Holy Childhood" and poor clergymen.
Moreover Elisabetta Girelli distinguished herself as a prolific writer of books of meditation and training which were read not only by the Daughters but also by young women of other institutes.
On July 12, 1901, Pope Leo XIII, in a public meeting, praised the Company of Saint Ursula and its superiors. The Congregation of the Institutes of Consecrated life and the Societies of Apostolic Life, with a decree of June 2, 1992, confirmed the papal approval of Paul III for the diocesan Company of Brescia, and, at the same time, recognized it as a "Family of consecrated seculars as a secular Institute before the Letter." It is governed by the Rule, the Testament and the Counsels of Saint Angela, besides the executive board approved by Brescia's Bishop Bruno Foresti on November 25, 1985.