Every religious community has a central house.  Some call it the “motherhouse,” others call it the “general house.”  Our Motherhouse is located in Rome, just steps away from St. Peter’s Square. It serves as the home of the Superior General and his council and houses the Founder’s Chapel as well as the archives of the Society.

Our presence in the house at Via della Conciliazione 51 dates back to the Founder, Father Francis Mary of the Cross Jordan. The Foundation was made in 1881 at 96 Piazza Farnese, the house where St. Bridget of Sweden lived in the 14th century.  Within a year Fr. Jordan needed more room for the growing number of candidates.  On November 1, 1882, he began renting rooms near St. Peter’s Basilica in the Palazzo Cesi, which then had an address of Borgo Vecchio 165.

In 1894 the owner of the palace,  Duca Francesco di Paola Negroni Caffarelli, who reserved for his own use only the first floor, the so called “piano nobile,” decided to sell the building and Jordan seized the opportunity to buy it. Probably  the actual taking over of the property happened  in the autumn of 1894, although the agreement was signed on the July 20, 1895.

In the 1930s the Italian government created a major boulevard, the Via della Conciliazione, leading from the Tiber River to the open arms of St. Peter’s Square. The Motherhouse, which had been facing a narrow street little bigger than an alley, suddenly found itself with a new address fronting on one of the most important streets in all of Rome.

In 1956 the body of Father Francis Mary of the Cross Jordan was transferred to the Motherhouse from Tafers, Switzerland (where he had died in 1918).