The Pio Loco delle Penitenti in 1745 stated that its goal was to:[1] support poor penitent women, instituted under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin, and with the patronage of the Patriarch San Lorenzo Giustinian, for their redemption from the clutches of the devil.In 1357, an institution was established in the somewhat isolated island of Santi Cristoforo e Onorio; but the outfit closed a few years later.

[2] By the 16th-century, the monastery of Santa Maria Maddalena had been erected in the island of Giudecca, but this convent was under the strict Order of St Augustine, and many women were not amenable to that cloistered lifestyle, which included vows of silence.

[3] In 1703, the Venetian patriarch, later cardinal, Giovanni Alberto Badoer gained approval of the Council of Ten to create this charitable institution.

In this regard, he was helped by the funding of aristocrat Elisabetta Rossi and the drive of priest Rinaldo Bellini, member of the Oratorian Order of St Phillip Neri.

[5][6] Among further donors over the next century are the Patriarch Piero Barbarigo, noblewoman Marina Nani Donado, Gaetano De Menego, and Gaspare Caffre.