History

        Armida Barelli (1882-1952)       Agostino Gemelli, OFM (1878-1959)

The Secular Institute of Missionaries of the Kingship of Christ (SIM), an international institute of pontifical right, is located in more than 30 countries throughout the world and has a membership of more than 2200 members. It received initial papal approval in 1948 and definitive approval as a secular institute in 1953.
SIM was founded in 1919 by Agostino Gemelli OFM and Armida Barelli.

The Institute began in the United States in the early 1950s when Father Stephen Hartdegen OFM and Barbara Ottinger received approval from the Archdiocese of Washington to become established in the US.  

In 2007, Armida Barelli was declared venerable (a servant of God) by Pope Benedict XVI.