Our Story

"What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…."
​- Pope Benedict XVI


Our Founding

Our desire as Marian Sisters of Santa Rosa is to live and love at the heart of the Church. Our good Bishop, Bishop Robert F. Vasa, invited our first Sisters to found a community to make visible the invisible reality of God's love in the Diocese of Santa Rosa. By this ecclesial action, the Holy Spirit called forth our charism of communicating our Catholic faith through joyful evangelization and a rich liturgical life. Bishop Vasa formally approved the Constitutions of the Marian Sisters of Santa Rosa and canonically erected the community on January 4, 2012.

A Life of Service

Since our founding, by God's grace and the enthusiastic support of the good people of the Diocese of Santa Rosa, the community has grown and its active apostolates have expanded. Committed to the spread of the faith in our Diocese, every Sister teaches the faith in some manner.


While some are formal classroom teachers, most of the Sisters exercise the charism more broadly through children's catechesis, faith formation groups, retreats and camps, and any other way in which God's will is made manifest.

A Life of Liturgical Prayer

Following the founding vision of a life of apostolic work flowing from a rich life of liturgical prayer, and in accord with Benedict XVI’s vision for inner reconciliation in the heart of the Church, we cherish the liturgical and devotional traditions of the Church. We particularly value sacred music, Gregorian chant, the use of the Latin language, and venerable liturgical practices, while worshipping with facility according to the approved forms of the Roman Rite. 


The beauty of the Liturgy reflects and magnifies Him Who is all Beautiful. Seeking to show forth more clearly the attractive and spiritually fulfilling beauty of Christ, we serve in sacristy work, sacred music, and the support of our priests. By the solicitude and humility we show in executing the Liturgy, we remind ourselves of the honor, dignity, and responsibility of faithfully praying as a representative of the Church.


We have the privilege of participating in both Forms of the Roman (or Latin) Rite. Our communal understanding of our liturgical heritage enables us to appreciate and share the full richness of this key aspect of the Church's life. We strive in all our apostolates to give the traditions of the Church their "proper place" while living fully present in our current age.

A Life of Consecrated Love

Called to a life of total consecration to Christ and His Church, we take the Blessed Virgin Mary as our inspiration and model and dedicate our time and talents completely to the service of God and neighbor.


We recognize the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience as a gift of the Most Holy Trinity which we embrace by vow in loving response to our call to religious consecration.


These vows constitute the essence of our religious lives and impart stability and higher consecration. They lovingly compel us to live as Christ lived in areas which cover our whole life: possessions, affection and autonomy.

“The more the Holy Ghost finds Mary, His dear and inseparable spouse in any soul, ​the more active and mighty He becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ.”
​- St. Louis Marie de Montfort -