Begel conceived the idea of establishing a religious community, and the following year he drew up a rule which was adopted by the women and approved by the Bishop of Nancy on 29 August 1858.

[1] The object of the new congregation was the education of youth in country districts and small towns, the training of orphans, the care of the sick, and incidentally the decoration of altars in parish churches.

Bishop Louis Rappe of Cleveland not only gave his approval, but invited the whole community to settle in his diocese.

The farm had recently been vacated by the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine, and to which they gave the name Villa Maria.

It was far from a railroad, and the land was uncultivated, undrained, overgrown with brush, and dotted with sloughs, the buildings being surrounded by a marsh.

[1] The sisters in Ohio wore a blue woolen habit, a black veil being worn by the professed, and a white one by novices.

The "blue nuns" went to farmhouses to protect children from contagious disease and cared for injured railroad workers in a small clinic at their motherhouse.

[2] They undertook the care of orphans and the work to which they had pledged themselves, and were soon able to enlarge the buildings (1869 and 1878), and shortly afterwards a chapel was built.

In 1897, the Holy Humility of Mary Sisters (the “Blue Nuns”) took charge of St. John's parish school in Ashtabula.

Ten sites covering a five counties provide housing for low income seniors and single parents in transition.

[2] In 1991, the "Heartsbeats" program was begun, selling items made by women in the United States and developing world countries to provide a market to help them support themselves through their skills.

Today, the Sisters of the Humility of Mary work in education, healthcare and social service primarily in the diocese of Cleveland, Youngstown and Pittsburgh.

They created the first religious "vacation schools" that educated children in rural Montana in their Catholic faith.