Founded by St. Maria De Mattias March 4, 1834 Acuto, Italy

1. Maria’s
Motherhood
and the
Birth of the
Congregation of the
Adorers
of the Blood
of Christ

2. Feeling life within the womb
is a privilege of Mothers, but
all women in some ways have
an intuition of it, predisposed
as they are to this miraculous
gift. The acceptance of the
other, the nurturing, the
generosity and empathy are all
contained in the vocation of
Motherhood, but is not the
exclusive province of the
woman who has physically
given birth.

3. Maria De Mattias was not an
exemption. It was conceived in her
being the Love of Jesus Crucified
and the Passion to Collaborate with
Him in His work of Redemption. On
March 1, 1834, just after her 29th
birthday, she began her labor pains
of seeing herself out of Vallecorsa
(her birthplace), from her father who
tearfully offered her to God. Her
pains during the travel were the
foretaste of the cost of discipleship.
Yet, the power to give birth is
coming from within that made even
the Bishop to bless her in awe,
seeing in her a prophetic woman far
beyond her time.

4. Finally on March 4, 1834,
Maria gave birth to the
Congregation of the Adorers
of the Blood of Christ, in a
small mountainous place of
Acuto. It was the impulse of
the Spirit that gifted her
with a special charism that
thrusts Maria to give it a
name that contained it all.
The Congregation has to be a
visible sign of God’s love
made perfect through the
Blood of Jesus.

5. From then she
began her
Spiritual
Maternity; a
witness to God’s
love in her own
life and led
others to the
knowledge and
love of the
Paschal Lamb.

6. Acuto had become the home that
witnessed how Maria lived out her
maternity. Her witness became the
light and the voice of the spirit for
her first daughters who recognized
their own vocation in her. These
daughters who were well taken
cared of became the first daughters
who shared in her apostolic
enthusiasm.
“May the Lord bless this work of
His and provide me with the
members according to His heart,
since there is much to do for the
souls of my “dear neighbor.” (L 97)

7. The Adorer had to spend much time
in contemplation and be ready to
challenge the storms and distrust, to
move from one place to another, to
speak to the people, to hold
conferences, recollections, retreats,
catechesis and others works that was
believed to be out of her capabilities
as a woman of that time. Through
her letters, Maria does not ask the
Adorers who followed her only to
carry out a ministry, innovative and
responsive to new needs as it might
be. She demanded Apostolic Passion
that gave birth to Missions.

8. Going out of
Acuto…

9. In November of 1840,
Maria went out from
Acuto. The opening of the
first community in
Vallecorsa was just the
beginning. The requests to
open school all throughout
Italy rapidly increase and
thus Maria was always in
“haste” to respond to the
needs of the Church in her
time.

10. A special significant expansion was the school
established in Rome in the house of the converted
Russian Princess Wolkonsky in 1847. This
movement brought the New Congregation to the
attention of prominent persons including Pope
Pius IX who entrusted to the Adorers the Hospice
of San Luigi in Rome and an orphanage in
Civitavecchia.
He received Maria in audience several times and in
1855 he granted the Decree of Praise for the
Congregation.

11. The Adorers did not have as its goal a particular ministry.
Rather it took its inspiration from the Mystery of the Blood of
Christ and sought to bring its power to God’s people, especially
women and girls. Her plan for the Congregation included more
than the variety of ministries that she projected. To her ministry
of founding, organizing, leading and guiding the growth and
expansion of the “new kind of Congregation”, Maria dedicated
all her strength. This example saw and experienced by her
daughters, the formation they received and the proposal of life
ideal which they accepted and shared made of them “women who
like Maria are born to give birth themselves.” They themselves
conceived in their being the charism which God gave first to
Maria herself. Eventually, the seeds sown in Acuto was
scattered all over Italy.

12. Expansions Abroad
Besides the remarkable development in Italy, the Congregation of
the Adorers also expanded abroad. Already in 1847, a group of
German speaking contemplative Adorers of the Most Precious
Blood in Steinerberg, Switzerland, at their request was
aggregated to the Italian Foundation through the Missionaries
of the Precious Blood.

13. This was another beginning
of giving birth to a farther
land. This group of Adorers
same with the one of Maria
lack no suffering brought
about by persecution and
exile from their own land.
Brought to disband from
Gurtweil, a small group had
gone to the United States of
America. Extreme poverty
and difficulty accompanied
them but the expansions of
the exiled Adorers were
incomprehensible.

14. Ruma Center - Ruma, Illinois Ruma Province in Illinois after its
expansion in the nearby places went
as Missionaries to China. In later
decades their missions abroad
included Puerto Rico, Bolivia and
Guatemala. It was also from this
Province came the Five ASC
Martyrs of Charity who were killed
in Liberia, Africa on October 1992.
Although there have been no
Adorers working in Liberia since
that year, the people of Liberia have
remained close to the heart of the
United States Adorers.

16. This rapid
Wichita Center - Wichita, Kansas expansion gave Brazil
birth to the
establishment of
the Wichita
Province. From
there some went
to Amazons in
Brazil and later
this group was Korea
established to be
an independent
province. In the
late 1970’s,
Wichita Adorers
gave birth to a
mission across the
Pacific in Korea.

17. While these foundations from
the nucleus of exiled Gurtweil
Adorers in US and expanded
to Missions Abroad, a very
small group who has opted to
remain in Europe developed
in other directions. Mostly
aged and ill, they endured
exile in Austria for several
years and then received an
invitation to settle in Bosnia
and later established
communities in Germany,
Austria, and Switzerland.

18. St. Joseph Convent/ From here, another group went
Columbia Center – to US that gave birth to
Columbia, Pennsylvania Colombia Province in
Pennsylvania. After a great
suffering of the aftermath of
WWII, civil strife and
communist oppression, the
Provincial Center of Bosnia
was relocated in Zagreb which
is now the Schaan Region.
From there in 1963, Sisters
left to take up an apostolate
for Croatian emigrants in
Australia, work which has
expanded and continues today.

19. From the foundation in
Bosnia, yet more expansions
occurred. After WWII some
of them who were Polish
descent were able to return
to Poland in Bolesławeic
which was also developed
into Province. Today, Sisters
from this Province are
working also in Belgium as
well as in Siberia and
Ukraine. Since 2006, St.
Maria De Mattias has
become the patroness of the
City of Bolesławeic.

20. The time had come also for
Italian Adorers to realize their Tanzania
desire for foreign Mission. In
1969, two Adorers from Acuto
Province and two from Rome
Province arrived in Tanzania.
The arrival of other Adorers
opened up for apostolic
possibilities. Later, development
have given the Congregation 2
more communities and now, in
A celebration that took place
yesterday, together with the
celebration that marked the
177th year of the Congregation,
Tanzania is declared a Region
Ad Experimentum.

21. India Region The Indian Region was formerly part of
Florence Region of Italy. The seed of
mission was sown to 8 Indian young women
set out to begin their formation in Italy.
Eventually after an integral formation
comes another milestone in the life of the
Congregation, the establishment of the
Indian Mission in Bangalore in 1981. Other
communities followed. Detaching itself from
the mother branch and with the readiness to
give birth, it became a region in 2005 with
its independent administration. The Sisters
also render their services in the General
Administration and in health services in
Rome.

22. Having received a request
by a young Filipina to be
able to enter the
Congregation and to
complete her formation in
her homeland, the province
of Bari in Italy explored
the possibility of opening
here in the Philippines. On
March 4, 1991, Bari
began a mission here with
2 sisters from Italy. With
the passing of time, other
Italian and Filipina
Adorers joined the first
group.

23. The realities of extreme poverty which
distorts the face of dignity of a person,
involved the Adorer’s choice to be, by the
power of the charism received, women of
reconciliation and solidarity called to
promote and generate life precisely where
the wounds are deepest, where life itself
and human dignity, made precious by
Christ Bloodshed, are offended and
destroyed. This marked the birth of the
Giovanni Merlini Apostolic Center which
is now St. Maria De Mattias Mission
Clinic providing not only a medical
assistance to the less privilege but a
wholistic approach to healing. With the
DOTS (Directly Observed Therapy Short
course) Program- TB patients found cure
and attention from the Sisters.

24. “I recommend the care of all,
especially the poor. How many poor
little children are abandoned, let us
have compassion on them” (MDM,
Letters)

25. These words of St. Maria
accompanied the steps of the Adorers
to streets where it is easy to meet
children abandoned by parents and
left on their own. Compassion
becomes action: on April 2001, 8 little
ones find the warmth of a family
again in the hospitality of the Sisters
in “St. Gaspar Orphanage” and which
is now the place where we gather
together, the St. Maria De Mattias
Center Orphanage. In Addition to
this ministries are catechesis and
formations. Today we celebrate the
20th year of ASC’s presence here in
the Philippines.

26. To give an idea of the amazing, rapid development of the Adorer’s
action, we need only to recall that in 1866, the year of Maria’s death,
there were 66 places of ministry scattered all over Italy but also in
Germany, US and England. Now there are almost 2000 Adorers present
in 27 countries all over the world.

27. The burden on Maria’s
shoulder was no small
matter but it was a labor
shared by her daughters.
Maria was truly a
“Mother” for them, a
model, a concrete presence
which stimulated all of
the Adorers to generosity
and availability but also
the cement that kept them
united at all times even
the most difficult.

28. St. Maria De Mattias was canonized a Saint in 2003,
a model of Holiness in the Church.
She is not just a Mother to the Adorers but to all of us.

29. Maria wasted no time
and so all the Adorers
who conceived in their
womb the Blood of
Jesus Crucified that
aims always to bring
back “the beautiful
order of things”. The
Blood that flows to
give life to the world.

30. The Adorers, worldwide,
wear the symbol of the heart
with a cross mounted above.
Drop of blood are engraved
on the heart to remind them
that they are called to
“retract” (draw in) and
reflect a living image of that
divine charity with which
the blood of JESUS was
shed and of which it was and
is sign, expression , measure
and pledge. “(MDM in ASC
Constitution, L.C.2)