[1] On August 30, 1685, with the approval of the Bishop of Viterbo, Cardinal Urbano Sacchetti, and the collaboration of two friends, Gerolama Coluzzelli and Porzia Bacci, Venerini left her father's home to begin her first school.

[1] The primary objective of the school was to give poor girls a complete Christian formation and to prepare them for life in society.

But the harshest suspicion came from those who were scandalized by the boldness of this woman of the upper middle class of Viterbo, who had taken to heart the education of ignorant girls.

After her initial successes, in 1692 Venerini was invited by the Bishop of Montefiascone, Cardinal Marcantonio Barbarigo, to establish schools in that diocese under her vision.

The Sisters were invited to duplicate their work in Rome in 1706, but the first experience there was a major failure, one which marked her deeply and caused her to wait six long years before regaining the trust of the authorities.

In 1909, the Sisters expanded their work to the United States, their first foreign site, going at the invitation of a pastor in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to help with the influx of Italian immigrants.

Inspired by the charism of Saint Rose Venerini, an associate lives the Gospel message through service to the People of God.

This association is for interested persons, 18 years of age and older, who wish to give expression to their relationship with the religious community of the Venerini Sisters.