Joaquim Masmitjà, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetJoaquim Masmitjà
priest and educator
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Olot, Catalonia, Spain
About Joaquim Masmitjà
- Joaquim Masmitjà i de Puig (born in Olot, Spain, on December 29, 1808 - died in Girona, Spain on August 26, 1886) was the founder of Daughters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1848.
- It was a Catholic religious teaching institute for women, later renamed Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
- Father Joaquim Masmitjà and in some other sources Joaquin Masmitja was the fourth child of Francisco and Maria Gracia.
- He entered the minor seminary for the Diocese of Gerona and then went on to get degrees in canon and civil law.
- Masmitjá, who was greatly devoted to the Blessed Virgin under the titles of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sorrowful Mother, was ordained a priest on February 22, 1834.Assigned to his hometown parish, Fr.
- Masmitjá became increasingly concerned over the poor education of young girls.
- He sought to rebuild society through their education in prayer and Christian doctrine.
- On July 1, 1848, Masmitjá founded the Institute of the Daughters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.In 1869, Fr.
- Masmitja's friend Bishop Thaddeus Amat y Brusi of Monterey, California, was visiting Spain, and asked for some of the sisters to come to California.
- Two years later, with Father Masmitja's approval, Mother Raimunda led nine others to the new California mission.
- The Sisters established two houses, one in Gilroy and the other in San Juan.
- Very soon the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart were teaching in several schools in different parts of California.
- Their lifestyle attracted young women to follow the charisma of Fr.
- Masmitja, and the Sisters inaugurated a third house in San Luis Obispo (1876), a fourth house in San Bernardino (1880), and finally the last house during the lifetime of Fr.
- Masmitja was established in Los Angeles (1886).Father Joaquin Masmitja died at the age of 78, on August 26th, 1886.
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