Religious of the Virgin Mary

The Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary is a community of vowed religious women of pontifical right founded in Manila, Philippines in 1684 by Venerable Mother Ignacia del Espíritu Santo a Filipina. The post-nominal initials of a member of the Congregation are "R.V.M." The Congregation administers schools in the Philippines and in the states of California and Hawaii in the United States.

History of the Congregation

The Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary, the oldest and largest Filipino congregation, is the first all-Filipino religious congregation for women in the Philippines founded in 1684 by a Filipina, Venerable Mother Ignacia del Espíritu Santo.

A Papal congregation of a mixed life, it aims primarily at personal sanctification and perfection. Its secondary aims include laboring for the sanctification and salvation of others through Catholic education of youth and catechetical instruction in parishes, as well as fostering spiritual retreats among lay women, conducting dormitories, and taking care of the sick in hospitals.

Venerable Mother Ignacia, Foundress of the R.V.M. Sisters, began her arduous task in the year 1684. Directed by divine inspiration and the wise guidance of her spiritual director, Father Paul Klein, S.J., Ignacia at the age of twenty-one left her family and friends, and gave herself without reserve entirely to the service of God by founding an institute whose...
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