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Who we are
The Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of St Charles
Borromeo – Scalabrinians was founded by
Blessed John Baptist Scalabrini in Piacenza on October 25, 1895, with the
brother and sister Father Joseph and Mother Assunta Marchetti as Cofounders.
Its mission is the evangelical, missionary service of migrants, especially the
poorest and neediest. It spread initially in Brazil, and later to Europe
(1936), North America (1941), and in recent decades to various countries in
Latin America, Asia and Africa, so that today it is present in 26 countries,
with 800 Sisters and 159 communities. The General Headquarters are in Rome.
The Sisters live their lives for Jesus Christ according to the demands of the
Scalabrinian charism, practicing fraternal life in community as a vital element
of religious consecration, and strengthening their fidelity to their vocation
through prayer, meditation on the Word of God, and the Eucharistic Celebration,
source of communion with God and their brothers and sisters.
As their Congregation has developed within history, the
Scalabrinian Missionary Sisters have dedicated themselves – and still do – to
education, social and pastoral activities, the pastoral care of health,
catechesis, evangelization, and collaboration with local churches to assist
migrants and the poor.
Faithful to the charism and
attentive to the challenges of mobility, the Congregation accepts the Church’s
proposal to place itself at the service of those caught up in the phenomenon of
migration, and to be “signs of God’s tender love toward the human race and ...
special witnesses to the mystery of the Church, Virgin, Bride and Mother” (John
Paul II, Vita consecrata, 57), prompted by the words of the Gospel, “I
was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Matthew 25:35).
By living the Scalabrinian charism, Scalabrinian Sisters
welcome God’s love as a gift to be passed on to those suffering the hardship of
being migrants.
In this way they guarantee the continuation of the prophetic
intuition of the Congregation’s *Founder, John Baptist Scalabrini, who
translated this intuition into a practical socio-pastoral project, entrusting
its early steps in history to the generous determination of the *Cofounders,
Father Joseph Marchetti and Mother Assunta Marchetti.
The charism of the MSCS Sisters arose at the time of the
great Italian emigration toward the Americas at the end of the 19th
century, as a response of faith that took practical shape as an institution. It
continues with the spiritual heirs of Blessed Scalabrini: the *Missionaries
of St Charles, the *Missionary Sisters of St Charles Borromeo – to
whom the *Secular Scalabrinian Missionaries, who drew their inspiration
from Bishop Scalabrini, were added at a more recent date – and the *Scalabrinian
Lay Missionaries.
As time passed, the underlying value was grasped of certain
elements inherent in history, such as the Latin word humilitas, which had
a determining place in the spirituality of the Founder, who had in turn drawn it
from St Charles Borromeo, the patron he left to “his” congregations. From this
word MSCS Sisters learn to be “sisters”, “servants”, “free gift”.
Accompanying and supporting migrants in their exodus, the Sisters
also seek to draw inspiration from the Risen One who, on the road to Emmaus,
comes “close” and who, with pedagogical tact, takes the initiative in a dialogue
that leads the disciples to the discovery of his identity, in other words the
Truth. Migrants in turn become a “teacher” for them, calling them to constant
renewal. |
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