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Our Congregation was founded on May 11, 1885, in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Montiel, Benaguacil - Valencia - SPAIN, and approved by Pope Leo XIII on March 25, 1902.

The name that Luis Amigó, our Founder, gave us defines our identity.

Sisters: This is how our Founder thought of us from the first Constitutions of 1885: "Unlike other Congregations in which some Sisters are distinguished from others, calling some of them Choir Members or Mothers, and others of obedience or lay sisters; there will not be any distinctions among the sisters in this Congregation..." (OCLA 2294)

And the Final Document of our XXII General Chapter (2016) continues to underline our being sisters, called to live the prophecy of compassion and mercy:

Tertiaries: We belong to the great Franciscan family, professing the Rule of the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis

Capuchin: A special nuance within the Franciscan family, as our Founder was a Capuchin: "Each Order and each Congregation has its characteristic spirit, in accordance to the noble mission the Lord entrusts to them; and our Institution, as a branch from the trunk of the Franciscan tree, and as well as being Capuchin, must be based on profound humility; blind obedience; and total poverty”. (OCLA 1920)

Of the Holy Family: Ever since Father Luis thought of us, he did not hesitate to call us “of the Holy Family”, perhaps because of all that he had experienced of this devotion and movement in the Church, but in a particular way, for the memory and the sign left in his heart by the abandoned child wrapped in some "rags" at the door of the convent of Montehano - Cantabria (Spain) where he lived at that time, as a young Capuchin; In the basket they found a writing that said: “He is not baptized; please give him the name Jesus, Mary, and Joseph ”. This child was the first person whom Father Luis baptized (cf. OCLA 51).