Oblate Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus

[1] In 1650 Moroni began to dedicate herself to the work of re-educating female victims of prostitution, shortly afterwards setting up a school to teach young girls the catechism and in 1667 receiving authorisation from the Vicar General of Rome to open a boarding house for her students.

The members of the small community all made a vow of perseverance on 2 July 1672, thereby formally establishing themselves as a lay religious society.

[1] The women initially took as their religious habit a brown tunic, in honor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, with a woolen belt and a black, ankle-length veil.

During the 19th century, due to their status as laywomen, not nuns, the members of the congregation and their schools were able to escape the closing of religious communities mandated by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy.

[1] For the first 250 years of the congregation's existence, each community of Oblates had been completely autonomous, and they lived under the canonical status of a society of common life, not taking religious vows.

In response to a general request by the pope issued to all religious orders, the Sisters began to serve in South America, opening schools in Brazil and Peru.