St Catherines Monastery

Augustinian Sisters

Address

Telephone

2122 1154

In 1580 a number of young women were living together as a community in the palace of the Marquis Giovanni and Katerina Vasco Oliviero at Valletta. They gathered children in the area with the aim of sheltering them from the evils of the world. They called themselves “Orfani della Misericordia’’ . In 1601 they decided to change their place of residence into a monastery. The Marquis welcomed the idea and left all his possessions to the community so that his palace could be transformed into a monastery. Pope Pius IX recognised the community as a community of Augustinian nuns in 1849, and on the 3rd September, 1851, 16 nuns made their first Profession. Since 1946 they have been officially recognised as members of the Second Order of Saint Augustine.