SECULAR INSTITUTES
Servite Secular Institute (SSI)
The Servite Secular Institute was founded by Joan Bartlett (+9th September 2002) in collaboration with Fr. Gerard M. Corr OSM in London in 1947, when a first "Rule" was written following the promulgation of Provida Mater Ecclesia, the Apostolic Constitution that officially approved Secular Institutes as a recognised form of consecrated life. Independently, in Italy in 1954 Piera Icardi, in collaboration with Fr. Tarcisio M. Bozzo OSM, founded ASL (Associazione Servitane Laicale), and subsequently Anne Marie Stoklossa in Germany, in collaboration with Fr. Hugo M. Körbel OSM, initiated a Secular Institute foundation within Servite Spirituality. By 1964, when the SSI received diocesan approval from the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, John Carmel Heenan, and also aggregation to the Servite Order through the Prior General, Fr. Alfonso M. Montà OSM, the Italian and then the German foundations had become one with the London foundation, thus bestowing internationality upon the Institute. On 25th March 1979, the Holy See erected the SSI as a Secular Institute of Pontifical Right. A major revision of the Constitutions took place at the General Assembly of 1990 and the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life finally approved these in 1994. Further changes were made by the General Assemblies of 2005 and 2010 which were approved by the Sacred Congregation in 2011.
For more information, please visit our website
www.ssi.org.uk
Secular Institute «Regnum Mariae» (REM)
1959, February 2. Regnum Mariae is born on this day, within the Third Order of the Servants of Mary of the Sacred Heart’s Parish Church in Ancona.
· 1961, May 31. The first three RM sisters take the three vows.
· 1962, November 21. The new Statutes of RM clarifies that RM’s special aim is “to offer one’s consecration to God, through the hands of Mary, to the benefit of priests, especially those belonging to the Order of the Servants of Mary, so that their holiness may increase…”
· 1967, September 2. RM is now a large group, subdivided into four local groups and one ‘headquarters’. Ancona’s Archbishop entrusts Villa Getsemani (Montesicuro) to RM, thus giving rise to the first RM community with its own activity.
· 1969, July 27-August 4. In the year of its tenth anniversary, RM holds its first special ‘chapter’ at Montesicuro. A new awareness of its own identity emerges, together with the need for a Rule of Life in conformity with its own secular vocation.
· 1970, December 8. The ‘Rule of Life’ is ready. This is a major turning point in our quest for our own identity.
· 1971, September 2. A new fraternity is established at Candia, our own place, but open to our friends.
· 1976, November 10. RM affiliates to the Order of the Servants of Mary.
· 1977, October 25. Ancona’s Archbishop establishes RM as a ‘Pious Union’.
· 1983, February 28. After getting the ‘nihil obstat’ from the Congregation for Religious and for Secular Institutes, Ancona’s Archbishop signs the decree by which RM is established as a ‘Diocesan Secular Institute’.
· 1983, August. At Cassano Murge (Bari), RM holds its first Assembly as a Secular Institute. The sisters renew their profession of the evangelical vows and receive the new text of the Rule of Life.
· 1984, February 2. In the year of its 25th anniversary, RM goes on a thanksgiving pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
· 1984, August 26-September 1. For the first time RM takes part in the World Congress of Secular Institutes (the third one) and in the General Assembly of Moderators.
Homily at the Mass of Thanksgiving: the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Secular Institute RM