Our History

Monsignor Francesco Maria Greco was the pastor of a poor but growing parish in Acri, a town located in Calabria, Italy. In 1894, he petitioned several religious congregations to send Sisters to provide formal and religious education to the children of the town.

When every religious community refused his request, Monsignor Greco approached a devout catechist named Raffaella DeVincenti and asked her assistance in starting a new religious congregation. Together, Monsignor Greco and Sister Maria Teresa DeVincenti founded the religious community known as Le Piccole Operaie dei Sacri Cuori – The Sisters, Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

Despite its humble beginnings, the work of the congregation spread rapidly throughout Calabria to Rome and northern Italy. Founded in charity and with a particular devotion to the poor, the congregation assumed several apostolates – education (from preschool to the university level as well as catechetical),social work in orphanages and with the local community; and the care of the sick poor in hospitals and nursing homes.

In October 1948, nine Sisters left Calabria to begin a new apostolic mission in Stamford, Connecticut with the specific intent to expand their catechetical work in the formal education and spiritual development of young children and adolescents. Upon their arrival, the Sisters staffed Saint Basil’s Preparatory School as well as the Bishop’s chancery.  With God’s help and the sisters’ hard work, they opened two nursery schools: Our Lady of Grace in 1962 and Villa Divino Amore in 1989.

 In the last 50 years years, thousands of children have been educated in this loving and nurturing environment.  The Sisters subsequently established nursery schools in Philadelphia, Washington and Riverdale, Maryland. Internationally, they have opened new convents across Italy and established missionary houses and novitiates in Argentina, Albania and India.

In 2002, the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts also began providing medical and surgical services for the poor and uninsured in Washington DC as well as free physical therapy clinics in Washington DC and Albania. We lead short missions in Haiti and Africa (Sudan, specifically) as a part of our medical mission work.