The Missionary Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo were born out of the desire of a few young women to live according to the same ideals of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo.
In 2005, Rachele Paiusco, along with a few companions, moved to Rome to follow Father Massimo Camisasca and Father Paolo Sottopietra. In that year the first seeds of a life together were planted, as the women began to follow an initial rule of shared prayer, study and work.
On March 25, 2007, the Solemnity of the Annunciation, the small community of the Missionary Sisters was constituted as a Private Association of the Faithful by the bishop of Porto-Santa Rufina, Gino Reali. In this period, they were guided by Father Paolo Sottopietra as their superior general. Just a few months after the recognition, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Vicar General of His Holiness for the diocese of Rome, offered them a house in the Magliana neighborhood. That house became the first House of Formation for the sisters. In those first years, with the support of the Fraternity, the sisters were able to define the essential characteristics and the rule of the new community. They founded an internal school for studies in the House of Formation, they began participating in various experiences of charitable work and collaborating with the priests of the Fraternity in Rome and they renovated the house in order to make space for the vocations that were arriving from Italy and from places farther abroad, like Chile, Argentina, Mexico, the United States, Spain and the Czech Republic. Since the very beginning, Father Camisasca began describing the relationship between the Missionary Sisters and the Fraternity of St. Charles as “one family in two institutes”, intending to underline both the profound unity between them and the autonomy of the two distinct institutes.
In 2008 Rachele Paiusco was the first to profess temporary vows of virginity, poverty and obedience and to take the religious habit of the Missionary Sisters.
On March 25, 2011, Gino Reali recognized the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles as a Public Association of the Faithful. In 2012, the Missionary Sisters opened their first mission house in Nairobi, Kenya, alongside the Fraternity’s mission in that city. With this important step, for the first time the community opened up to a broad missionary horizon. From 2012 until 2016, the Missionary Sisters opened a house in Reggio Emilia to serve and accompany Father Camisasca during the first years of his episcopate.
In 2015, Gino Reali nominated Rachele Paiusco as Superior General of the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles. In September 2015, two sisters left for Denver, Colorado to open a new mission house in the United States.
In 2016, the House of Formation and the headquarters of the Institute moved to a new building, in via Aurelia Antica near the Vatican. The new house was entrusted to them by the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See. In the same year, the house in the Magliana neighborhood became a house of mission, dedicated to working with the people in that area and in the church of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii.
