Mother of God, Congregation of The

Mother of God, Congregation of the

a monastic order instituted about 1574 at Lucca, in Tuscany, by John Leonardi. Their purpose is to save the lost of all conditions by any and all spiritual means, as the preaching of the Gospel, catechetical instruction, and visiting. They especially aim to reach the sick and the dying, and make the hospitals their principal fields of labor. Their founder was particularly devoted to the mother of Christ, and he provided in the constitution of the order that every day at 1 P.M. the litanies of the Holy Virgin be recited, and other like religious devotions be paid to her memory. The order was approved by pope Clement VIII in 1595, and confirmed by pope Paul V. Pope Gregory XV, anxious to spread the order throughout Italy, permitted its members to take the three monastics vows. Their dress is very much like the common monastic garb. See Hist. du Clerge seculier et regulier (Amst. 1716), 3:123-125.