Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood
SISTERS ADORERS OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD
(APB, Official Catholic Directory #0110); a cloistered, contemplative community with papal approbation, founded in Canada in 1861 for the twofold purpose of adoration of the Precious Blood and the salvation of souls. The foundress, Catherine Aurélie Caouette, and three companions began the congregation at St. Hyacinthe, Quebec Province, with the approval of Bp. Joseph LaRocque (1860–65) and under the direction of Msgr. J.S. Raymond. Mother Catherine Aurelia of the Precious Blood, as she was known in religious life, died July 6,1905. The constitutions of the community were approved by Leo XIII in 1896, after several foundations had been made in Canada and one in the United States, in Brooklyn, NY (1890).
The sisters pray the Liturgy of the Hours in common, and participate in prayers for reparation of the world and special hours of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. The sisters also engage in making altar breads, vestments, and altar linens and in doing art work.
At the beginning of the 21st century, there were nineteen monasteries of the Precious Blood: six autonomous houses belonging to the American Federation; four houses belonging to the French Generalate of Canada, seven belonging to the English Generalate of Canada, and two independent monasteries in Japan.
Bibliography: The Life of Mother Catherine Aurelia of the Precious Blood (St. Louis 1929).
[m. m. ryan/eds.]