This year, the General Assembly of the Institute took place in two parts for the first time, in July as a four-day online event and in August as a one-week face-to-face meeting at the Kardinal König Haus in Vienna. The 22 delegates and directors from all over the world met there and discussed various topics. Finally, the new General Council was elected.
The new Director General is Adelaide Vaz from India, the Regional Directors are Viera Čerňanová (for Europe), Judy Salcedo (for USA-Jamaica), Josephine Lousia (for India) and Lourdes Pestaño (for Philippines-Korea).

We wish the new office holders all the best and God’s blessing for their tasks.

Our founder Maria Elisabeth Strachotinsky was born 120 years ago and 40 years ago she was allowed to return home to our Lord.

75 years ago – on 7 March 1948, the institute was established as an Institutum saeculare of diocesan right according to a document. 67 sisters took their first vows at that time.

70 years ago – on 3 January 1953, the community received the Decretum Laudis and thus became a secular institute of pontifical right.

40 years ago – on 31 July 1983, the feast day of St Ignatius of Loyola, the statutes were approved, which were drawn up under Director General of Hanna Hoyos, adopted at the 1982 General Assembly and sent to Rome for approval by the newly elected General Director Monika Wild.

For 35 years, our Directives have been a valid addition to the statutes. They were discussed at the 1982 General Assembly and the draft was trialled for 6 years. They were adopted at the following General Assembly in 1988.

20 years ago, Monika Wild was called home by the Lord after a fulfilled life.

On 6th January 2023 it is exactly 70 years since our Founder, Fr. Carl dinkhauser SJ, received the notification from Rome that the Institute was declared an Institute of Pontifical Right on January 3rd, the Feast of the Name of Jesus.

Let us rejoice and thank the Lord for the deep trust HE has in us.

In Feburary 2018, during the visitation of Director General Maria Christine to India, the 50th anniversary of the founding of our Institute in Ernakulam was celebrated. (more…)

On 22nd August, during the 9th General Assembly of the Secular Institute “Madonna della Strada” the general council was elected. It now consists of the following members:

Director General: Maria Christine Hochleitner was re-elected

General Assistants: Dr. Adelaide Vaz from India (Deputy Director General), Lourdes Pestaño from Philippines, Dr. Viera Čerňanová from Slovakia and Gertrude Spörker from Austria.

Regional director: Judy Salcedo from Jamaica – USA – Caribbean  (more…)

Pope Pius XII promulgated the Apostolic Constitution “Provida Mater Ecclesia” on February 2, 1947. 

It gave our institute, which had been founded 11 years earlier on, a canonical basis.

To read the Apostolic Constitution on the Vatican Website please click here.

To mark this special anniversary, we have designed a logo which we use on all our correspondences during this jubilee-year. It implies that members of a secular institute usually live unrecognised and want to pass on the good news of the Gospel to the people in their neighbourhood. This can happen in their jobs, in a care home, in a sky scraper, where ever people feel left out…

We have a little folder in central house which informs about the most important aspects of our secular institute. It can be obtained from central house.

This folder can also be downloaded in English here or in German here. (The template is for two folders and double-sided printing – cut in half and fold). Thank you for your interest!

Our members in Korea, Sr. Jemma and Sr. Modesta, work in their living environment. (more…)

During the founding day feast in Steyr the new monstrance made from oblation rings of deceased members was consecrated. (more…)

On Friday 26.02.2016 we celebrated the 80th jubilee of our Society in Steyr, Upper Austria.

Beside the adoration hour and the celebration mass in the church “Marienkirche” there was also a celebration hour with a review over the past 80 years. (more…)