Our story as Little Missionaries of the Sacred Heart began 100 years ago. The date of erection is June 23, 1922. In 1950 we would receive the decree of “Congregation of Pontifical Right.
Our Foundress, Mother Clotilde Gigli, is originally from Empoli. He was a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition.
She served both as a teacher in Malta and in Tunisia as a nurse, but due to illness she had to return to Italy. To restore her health she was sent to Antignano.
Here she met Msgr. Melani, parish priest of the Pieve, who urged her to ask the Congregation to work in the parish and to take care of the children and young people who, abandoned to themselves, teemed in stretches of sea.
After various vicissitudes in 1914 with two other sisters she decided to remain in Antignano and to continue the apostolate begun in 1910.
This caused the separation from the Congregation where they had lived with love and dedication but which did not accept Mother Clotilde’s desire to dedicate herself to children, young women and the humble apostolate in the parish.
The three sisters led a very simple life alternating prayer with the education of the little ones, embroidery work with the young women and visiting the sick. In the parish, in addition to teaching catechism, preparing all the liturgical festivities, they took care of keeping the sacristy, the custody of the sacred vestments and the decorations for the festivities. Obedient to the Bishop, they tried to join other Institutes existing in Livorno but with negative results. Msgr. Melani supported the sisters throughout the time of discernment until the configuration of the new Institute, which from 1916 after the opening in the house of the first center of the Apostolate of Prayer, the
sisters chose the name “LITTLE MISSIONARIES OF THE SACRED HEART”.