Janua Coeli

Gate of Heaven

In 1958, solemn manifestations were held in Lourdes for the Centenary of the apparitions of Our Lady to St. Bernadette and the small religious family of the Daughters of the Church, which had only twenty years of existence, had not yet crossed the borders of Italy. Foundress’s filial love for the Madonna, raises in her heart the desire to be present in the Shrine, with a community of Sisters, for Eucharistic Adoration.

Mother Oliva does not want to miss out on the good occasion of the Centenary and hurries to communicate to Monsignor Théas, then Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, her profound desire. Between Monsignor and our foundress began a brief correspondence and in response to the request, in the autumn of the same year, the Bishop expressed himself thus: «It is the Virgin who sends you!».

The adoration began on 8 December 1958 in the Reception Chapel in the Basilica del Rosario, in the Sanctuary. The religious bulletin of the Diocese defines the beginning of the Adoration "a grace of the Centenary" and Monsignor Théas adds: "the most beautiful grace of the Centenary".

However, the Institute still did not have a home in Lourdes. Therefore, the first Daughters of the Church who had come to begin the Adoration immediately started looking for a house. After only two days from the beginning of Adoration, Mother Oliva communicates to the whole Institute that on December 10, Our Lady made us find what we were looking for; a modest building, located in front of the Moulin de Boly, the birthplace of St. Bernadette.

The foundation of «Janua Coeli», is an event that involved the whole Institute; on June 24, 1959, our Foundress wrote that she had placed the twenty years of the Institute, with profound gratitude to God, at the feet of the Virgin in the Grotto.

In the passing of the years of our presence in Lourdes, the local Church has asked us for different apostolic services and we have tried to respond always inspired by the Word of God and the Magisterium of the Church, as also indicated by our Foundress, to be ever more "contemplative" and therefore apostles ".

Reception of pilgrims from different linguistic background, both in the Sanctuary and in the Bernadette’s birth House at the "Moulin de Boly", catechesis in the Parish, liturgical animation in the Sanctuary and Eucharistic Adoration.