Magdalene desired to provide boys with the same care her religious sisters were providing to girls. To this end she invited the priest Francesco Luzzi to open a small chapel adjacent to the sisters' convent of Santa Lucia in Venice. He opened this house on 23 May 1831. In 1833 the priest saw two laymen join him (Giuseppe Carsana and Benedetto Belloni) and who later took over the work of the place when Luzzi left to become a Carmelite friar. The men's order were given a religious habit in 1860 from the Patriarch of Venice, Angelo Francesco Ramazzotti, and were given a Rule in 1897 from Domenico Agostini who was a later patriarch. In 1833 she became profoundly affected by the death of Margherita Rosmini who was a close friend.