Their "...work includes service in clinics, hospitals, orphanages and the education of girls and young people.”[1] Costanza Troiani was born in the Roman suburb of Giuliano on January 9, 1813.
At the age of 16, she felt a vocation to be a member of the small monastic congregation which had raised her and she was quickly accepted and given the name, Sister Mary Catherine of St. Rose of Viterbo.
Her prayers and work then supported the abbess in their efforts to help the development of their small religious congregation, which was struggling to follow a more strictly cloistered life.
Finally, all permissions had been received, a house in Cairo had been purchased through the help of a relative of Troiani, thus a party of six nuns set out for Egypt, led by the abbess herself.
Faced with either returning to Italy or closing a mission that was just beginning to flourish, she and her companions decided to separate from their monastic congregation.
They chose to re-organize under the Rule of the Third Order of St. Francis and received formal approval of the Holy See on November 10, 1868, under the name of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Egypt.
Immediately after receiving the approval of the new congregation by Pope Pius IX, Troiani and nine members of the original community made profession of religious vows under the new rule.