A religious order of sisters founded by Mother Mary Potter in Nottingham, England, 1877, for the gratuitous nursing of the sick poor. The order has 27 houses, including hospitals, convalescent homes, a sanitorium, a refuge for delinquent girls, and a poor house, in Italy, England, Ireland, Scotland, Malta, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States and South America. The mother-house is in Rome.