A foundation was established in Lyons in 1615 followed by Moulines (1616), Grenoble (1618), Bourges (1618), and
Paris (1619). When
Francis de Sales died (1622) there were 13 convents established; at the death of
Jane Frances de Chantal in 1641 there were 86.
Portugal ,
Portugal. The Order of the Visitation has been present in
Portugal since 1784, maintaining today three monasteries: in
Braga, in
Vila das Aves and in
Batalha. The Sisters of the Visitation in Portugal produce and distribute the
emblems of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (like
devotional scapulars) as
Margaret Mary Alacoque did in the past.
England At the French Revolution in 1789 when all the religious houses were suppressed many of the French Sisters took refuge in other Catholic countries. The sisters in Rouen, northern France, fled to Portuguese monasteries, having only escaped the guillotine by the death of Robespierre in 1794. In 1803 six sisters left Lisbon in an English packet ship and while at sea they were attacked by French pirates. They were spared because of their nationality (they were French not English) and were returned safely to the Spanish seaport of Vigo. After a brief sojourn in Spain three of the Sisters made a second attempt to cross from Porto and without further encounters with pirates arrived in Falmouth on 29 January 1804. They later journeyed to Acton and founded the first monastery of the Visitation on English soil on 19 March 1804. They subsequently re-located to
Waldron.
Germany In 1835, the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary of
Dietramszell acquired
Beuerberg Abbey (Kloster Beuerberg), in
Eurasburg,
Germany. Between 1846 and 1938 they ran a girls' school and a home for nursing mothers at Beuerberg Abbey, and afterwards an old people's convalescent home. The abbey still belongs to the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary.
Colombia The nine Visitation Sisters from Madrid, Spain came to Colombia in 1892 and founded the first Monastery at
Santa Fe, Bogotá.
Ireland The Visitation Sisters came to Ireland in 1955 and founded a Monastery at Stamullen, Co. Meath. When Mother Mary Teresa O’ Dwyer, Superior of the Visitation Monastery of Roseland, England learned that the Brothers of St. John of God were moving out of Silverstream, she applied to the Bishop of Meath for permission for the Order of the Visitation to enter his diocese. Staffing problems were solved by borrowing three Sisters from America. The Visitation Monasteries of St. Paul Minnesota, Brooklyn New York and Atlanta Georgia each lent a Sister.
Korea In 2005, six Visitation Sisters from
Manizales, Colombia, came to South Korea. The Monastery of the Visitation was established in Jeongok-eup,
Yeoncheon County, in
Gyeonggi Province,
South Korea.
Poland The Visitation Sisters (
Polish:
Zakon Nawiedzenia Najświętszej Marii Panny, or,
siostry wizytki) were first invited to the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by the Polish queen-consort
Marie Louise Gonzaga, who was heavily involved as a patron and supporter of the Catholic church. Her wish came to pass with the arrival of 12 nuns to Warsaw. The Warsaw Visitandines' numbers would quickly increase and the convent funded two more, in
Kraków and
Vilnius, before 1700. Following
the partitions, the order was robbed multiple times by foreign armies and it suffered under sanctions imposed by the occupying powers. Currently there are four Visitationist convents in Poland.
Warsaw The first convent was built on
Krakowskie Przedmieście, near a royal residence. The nuns were officially enclosed the same year, 1654, however soon after, they would have to leave their cloister twice due to threats from
hostile armies - this would happen again some centuries later, when the sisters were driven out to house Napoleonic soldiers. Since their founding,
Wizytki, as they are called, managed schools and pensions for girls, taking care of the urban poor. The sisters were forbidden from teaching after the fall of the
January Uprising (1864), as one of the
many efforts by the Tsar to erase any Polish national influence in education - along with the pension, the novitiate was closed, meaning no new sisters could be taken in. Wizytki only resumed training novices in 1905. The oldest of the Visitationist convents was also involved in the Warsaw Uprising, when the sisters voluntarily opened their cloister to guests and sheltered the vulnerable civilian population. As stewards of
one of the most prominent historical landmarks in Warsaw, the sisters were also involved in art conservation. Under
communist rule, the same convent was a space of contact and exchange with clergy in countries such as
Hungary or
Czechoslovakia.
Kraków The convent in Kraków attributes its conception to a miracle performed by Francis de Sales, who answered the prayer of bishop and founder Jan Małachowski when the latter was drowning in the frozen
Vistula river. Five nuns from the Warsaw convent moved to Kraków the very same winter, but the enclosed convent proper would only be established in the summer of 1682, the following year. In Kraków too, the sisters were heavily involved with girls' education, which was the only reason the convent was not forced to disband under
Austrian occupation. Thanks to its good reputation, it even received foreign students. During and after the
first world war, the convent came to rely on goodwill for income.
Jasło The aforementioned convent in Vilnius was disbanded and the sisters forcefully expelled to France in 1841 by the order of
Tsar Nicholas I. In 1901, the Visitandines came from Versailles to Poland, where they found a new home in a newly-built convent in Jasło, that received them officially in 1903. Like its sister convents, the Visitandines of
Jasło managed a pension for women and girls, although its capacity as a school was not formally recognised; their educational activity ceased with the outbreak of World War I. During World War II, the sisters were once again displaced and the convent first converted to a war hospital and then detonated. The Visitandines returned to the ruins in the 1950s and the slow process of rebuilding begun; in 1966, the church was consecrated again as part of the wider celebrations of 1000-year anniversary of
Catholicism in Poland.
Rybnik In 1942, the Visitandines of Vilnius were expelled once again. They were forbidden from wearing the habit and had to live among civilians for the remainder of World War II.
United States In the
United States there are 10 monasteries in two federations. The monasteries of the First Federation live the purely contemplative life, observing papal enclosure, with solemn vows, and have retained the traditional habit of the order. Of the ten monasteries of the Visitation in the United States, six belong to the First Federation.
First federation • The Convent of the Visitation in Mobile, Alabama was founded in 1833 by Bishop Michael Portier, first bishop of Mobile. Aware of the lack of schools in his diocese, he remembered the fine work of the Visitation nuns throughout his native France. Five nuns from the monastery in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. boarded a sailing ship in November 1832 and arrived in Mobile a month later. In March 1840, a tornado leveled the buildings. In the 1950s the school was converted to a retreat house. The monastery also serves as a distribution center for communion breads used by churches throughout the Mobile Archdiocese and for many churches in surrounding states, a service extended to a number of non-Catholic churches as well • In 1866 Visitation Sisters from Baltimore, Maryland came to Richmond, Virginia at the request of Bishop John McGill. In 1987 the Visitation Sisters relocated to Rockville, Virginia (where they continue to bake altar breads as their main source of income). • The Visitation community of Tyringham, Massachusetts was founded in 1853 in Keokuk, Iowa by the Visitation Monastery of Montluel, France. In the 19th Century, it was necessary for Visitation communities, both in France and in the United States, to have academies for girls in order to support themselves. After having moved from Keokuk, Iowa, to Suspension Bridge, New York, and then, lastly, to Wilmington, Delaware in 1868, a generous benefactress enabled the community to close the school in 1893 and live the full contemplative life. In 1993 the community relocated to Massachusetts and moved into its present monastery, Mont Deux Coeurs, in December 1995. • The Visitation nuns were founded in Toledo from Georgetown in 1915 at the invitation of Bishop
Joseph Schrembs. • The Monastery of the Visitation was established in Atlanta Georgia and moved to Snellville, Georgia in 1974. • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. • The Visitation monastery in Brooklyn, New York was founded in 1855 by sisters from Baltimore. • In 1873, six Sisters of the Visitation from St. Louis, Missouri traveled by steamship for eight days up the Mississippi river to the fast-growing river town of St. Paul, Minnesota at the request of Bishop Grace, who asked them to make a new foundation and to open a school,
Convent of the Visitation School; together, the school and monastery moved four times as they expanded. In 1966, the sisters and school moved to Mendota Heights, where the larger facility allowed for expanded programs and enrollment. The Mendota monastery was slated to close in mid-January 2019, with the remaining three sisters moving to a health care facility or other Visitation monastery. The school — now simply called Visitation School — remains today at the Mendota Heights campus. • In 1989, the Leadership of the Second Federation of the Visitation Order in the United States of America established an urban monastic community in
Minneapolis, Minnesota. As part of their ministry to families they offer education sessions, such as cooking and nutrition, finance and budgeting, college preparation, etc. for neighborhood teens. The
Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy was founded in 1848 as the Wheeling Female Academy in downtown Wheeling, West Virginia and in 1865 assumed its current name. While grades five through twelve were all female, Mount de Chantal's Montessori and Elementary schools were co-ed. The school ceased operations on May 31, 2008, and the nuns relocated to the Georgetown Visitation in Washington, D.C. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, before being razed on November 7, 2011. ==Notable Visitandines==