New Religious Community to Staff Trinità dei Monti in Rome and Welcome all who wish to visit Mater

Trintà dei Monti (Photo: Newscom / Copley News Service) Mater Admirabilis

The General Council of the Society of the Sacred Heart has announced in a letter to Religious of the Sacred Heart worldwide that, beginning in summer 2006, a new religious community will staff the Trinità dei Monti in Rome and offer hospitality into the future to all who wish to see Mater, the fresco of the Blessed Virgin Mary so dear to RSCJ and the extended family of the Society, particularly alumnae/i of Sacred Heart schools.

Further, the buildings at the Trinità are undergoing a major renovation assuring that the Society’s beloved Mater fresco will be secure for generations to come.

The renovations are already underway at the expense of the French government, which has owned the monastery, including the church and school, for the entire 178 years that RSCJ have lived and operated the school on the site.

Pending final signatures on accords between the Holy See and the French government, the new community greeting guests to the Trinità will be the Monasteries of Jerusalem (Fraternités Monastiques de Jérusalem), a congregation of monks, nuns and laity founded in 1975 with a vocation to live “in the heart of the city, in the heart of God” and to provide welcome to all, including citizens and visitors to the city, outcasts, children, and the poor. Further, the congregation’s members have a special devotion to Mary and are willing to embrace the spirit and practice of Sacred Heart education in running the school.

The General Council noted in its announcement that many RSCJ, alumnae/i of Sacred Heart schools and friends of the Society will undoubtedly be saddened by these changes. However, the French government, in undertaking renovations at the site, demanded a significant reinforcement of personnel at the Trinità – a demand the provincials of Italy and France were unable to meet, given the aging of their memberships and the present priorities of the Society’s educational mission worldwide.

Before the Society came to the Trinità in 1828, it had been owned for 300 years by the Order of Minims, an order founded by St. Francis of Paola in 1506. The Society was invited to carry out its mission at the Trinità by an agreement between the Holy See and the government of France for the purpose of educating young girls. The General Council noted in its letter that the Italian and French provincials of the Society of the Sacred Heart have been concerned for some time about continuing to staff the Trinità.

“We pray that this transition time may be a time of collaboration in a spirit of welcome and love,” the General council wrote. “May Sophie … help us to see that this moment too is a  “time of grace” in which God is present – in our gratitude for the past, in our letting go of the present, and in our openness to the future.”