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| Abbreviation | ICM |
|---|---|
| Established | 1897; 129 years ago (1897) |
| Founder | MotherMarie Louise De Meester, ICM |
| Founded at | Mulagumudu, India |
| Type | Centralized Religious Institute of Consecrated Life of Pontifical Right (for Women) |
| Purpose | Educational, social and foreign mission work |
| Headquarters | Generalate Rome, Italy |
Region served | Europe, Asia, Americas and Africa |
| Members | 790 |
Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
Formerly called | Missionary Canonesses of St. Augustine (1897–1963) |
TheMissionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (I.C.M.) are aRoman Catholicreligious institute ofpontifical right of women, dedicated to the service of those in need in theThird World.
The Sisters were founded inMulagumudu,South India, then under the rule of theBritish Raj, in 1897 by MotherMarie Louise De Meester, acanoness regular fromYpres, Belgium. Always feeling a strong interest in the foreign missions of the Catholic Church, with the blessing of herprioress, De Meester left her native country to respond to the invitation of theDiscalced Carmelite friars in India to care for orphans and abandoned children. Her sole companion wasDame Marie Ursule (civil name Germaine De Jonckheere), anovice of that same monastery. They arrived in India on November 7, 1897.[1]
The Sisters ran homes for the aged and the sick, orphanages and schools. Other women came to join them and eventually the canonesses in India separated from the monastery in Belgium and formed a newreligious congregation, called theMissionaryCanonesses ofSt. Augustine. The work began to grow and expand. From India De Meester established new communities of canonesses in the Philippines (1910), the West Indies (1914), theUnited States (1919), in Congo, (1920), and China (1923). She died in Belgium in 1928.[1]
AfterWorld War II, the canonesses established new communities in Burundi (1944), Hong Kong (1953), Taiwan (1959), Guatemala, (1964), Brazil (1965), Cameroon (1969), Haiti (1977), Lebanon, (1987), Mongolia (1995), and Chad (1996).[1]
In 1963 the canonesses sought to strengthen their missionary identity and became affiliated with the missionary priests of theCongregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. They then changed the structure of the congregation to drop their status as a semi-enclosed religious order and their name to the one they now have.
The congregation numbers more than 790 members living in over 100 communities located on five continents. (2010).
SisterJeanne Devos, I.C.M., is a leader in the National Domestic Workers Movement, which advocates in defense of domestic workers in India, who has been nominated for theNobel Peace Prize.
