Sisters of the Reparation of the Holy Face

For the order based in Treviso, see Sisters of the Holy Face

The Pontifical Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of the Reparation of the Holy Face is a Roman Catholic order whose focus is providing Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ.

History

In 1950, the Venerable Abbot Hildebrand Gregori formed the organization "Prayerful Sodality" which in 1977 became the Pontifical Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of the Reparation of the Holy Face.[1]

This Holy Face of Jesus devotion dates back to Sister Marie of St Peter, a Carmelite nun in Tours France who in 1843 reported visions of Jesus and Mary in which she was urged to spread the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus, in reparation for the many insults Jesus suffered in his Passion. The devotion was further spread from Tours by the efforts of the Venerable Leo Dupont (also known as the Apostle of the Holy Face) who prayed for the establishment of the devotion for 30 years, burning a lamp before a painted image of Jesus. Pope Leo XIII approved of the devotion in 1885.[2]

On the first Friday in Lent 1936, Sister Maria Pierina de Micheli, a nun born near Milan in Italy, reported a vision in which Jesus told her:

“ I will that My Face, which reflects the intimate pains of My Spirit, the suffering and the love of My Heart, be more honored. He who meditates upon Me, consoles Me. ”

In his letter of 27 September 2000 to Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the formation of the order, Pope John Paul II described the goal of the Benedictine Sisters of the Reparation of the Holy Face as: "The unceasing effort to stand beside the endless crosses on which the Son of God continues to be crucified".[3]

In 1997 Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini formed the International Institute for Research on the Face of Christ in Rome in association with the Sisters of the Reparation of the Holy Face.[3][4]

The congregation has houses on several continents.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Zenith Vatican News Hildebrand Gregori a Step Closer to Canonization Archived February 8, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ Dorthy Scallan. The Holy Man of Tours. (1990) ISBN 0-89555-390-2
  3. 1 2 Pope John Paul II, Letter to Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini, for the 50th anniversary of the Benedictine Sisters of Reparation of the Holy Face, 27 September 2000 (Vatican archives)
  4. ↑ Vatican website: Address of John Paul II to the Benedictine Sisters of the Holy Face, 14 October 1999
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