The history and devotional practices of the Dominican and Visitation nuns that once inhabited the building have affected the life of the American College. For example, a devotion to Our Lady of Humility has been adopted as the College's own, and certain privileged feasts of the nuns, such as the Visitandines' celebration of St. Francis de Sales, were always celebrated with special solemnity by the College as well. Another example relates to the fact that the declaration as Venerable (an early step in the process of canonization) of the Visitandine nun, later saint, Margaret Mary Alacoque, occurred in the Church of the Umiltà in 1846. In recognition of that connection, Henry Brann was able to claim in 1910 that the American College was "inseparably associated with the devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus".