Oblates of the Virgin Mary

Oblates of the Virgin Mary
Italian: Oblati di Maria Vergine
AbbreviationOMV
Formation1815 (1815)
FoundersBruno Lanteri
TypeReligious institute
HeadquartersRome, Italy
Membership178 (146 priests) (2023)
Rector Major
Fr. Luis Alberto Constantino Ávila, OMV
Parent organization
Catholic Church
Websiteoblati.org

The Oblates of the Virgin Mary (Italian: Oblati di Maria Vergine) is a religious institute of priests and brothers founded by Bruno Lanteri (1759–1830) in the Kingdom of Sardinia in the early 19th century. The institute is characterized by a zeal for the work of preaching and the sacrament of confession, according to the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola and the moral theology of St. Alphonsus Liguori. It is also marked by love for Mary and fidelity to the magisterium.

Lanteri first founded the Oblates of Mary Most Holy in 1815, as a diocesan right congregation. Subsequently, after a five-year hiatus, some of the original members re-established themselves as "The Oblates of the Virgin Mary" (Congregatio Oblatorum Beatae Mariae Virginis), and received papal approval from Pope Leo XII on 1 September 1826, about four years before Lanteri's death.

Since the initial foundation, the Oblates have worked throughout Italy and its islands, and in France, Austria, Myanmar (Burma), Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, the United States of America, Mexico, Canada, the Philippines, and Nigeria.