Origins

In those years their desire for consecration undoubtedly developed and became firm, taking its shape in their everyday educational work among young girls.
In fact the Cittadini sisters, whose personal experience had been so hard, understood the urgency of the human and Christian education of young girls and, little by little, carried out their life projects. In 1829 they welcomed the first girls; in 1831 they began a private school and in 1836 a boarding school for girls’ education, works run by Giuditta. In 1847 Caterina applied for official approval to include a small orphanage for outcast young girls, who were numerous in that area. In 1840, because of the early death of Giuditta, Caterina took charge of the whole work.  Caterina and Giuditta did their best with all their abilities and means for the educational benefit of the girls left in their care. They clearly manifested the ideal of their utter consecration to God in the form of motherly education. They wanted to be “real mothers in Christ” for “those souls that the Lord had redeemed with His blood and entrusted to their care as a valuable treasure”; they committed themselves to the well-rounded education of the girls, “training them in every branch of teaching concerning not only education but also needlework and knitting as well housework,” without omitting anything which could “contribute to their spiritual and physical improvement.”
The human-spiritual-charismatic trait that marks all the communitarian-apostolic experiences of the Ursulines of Saint Gerolamo in Somasca, in Europe, and in the mission ad gentes, was undoubtedly their “vocation for the people,” the simplicity of acting with a motherly heart as educational apostles close to people, with a special care for children, girls and youth. They wanted to share the joy and the suffering of families, sick people, old people, and those who experienced insecurity and loneliness.