Dominican Sisters of San Rafael

A new bishop was needed to lead it, and in May 1850 the choice fell upon a Spanish-born Dominican friar, Joseph Sadoc Alemany, who had established his Order in the United States and had become a citizen of the nation.

He happened to be in Rome for a meeting of the friars there when he received word of his appointment, which he accepted only under obedience to the pope.

[1] As he prepared for his new post on the edge of the American frontier, Alemany determined that he would need a community of religious women helping to build up his new diocese through teaching its children.

The following spring, she moved to Monterey, where she opened St. Catherine Academy, the first private, Catholic school in the State, as well as the first religious community of women, of which she was the prioress.

[2] The latter group included a prominent member of California society, Concepción Argüello, who was to become noted in folk legend due to a failed love affair in her youth.

[2] By 1862 the community had grown large enough that Goemaere founded a new school, St. Rose Academy in San Francisco.

[3] Under the reforms of Catholic institutional life by the Second Vatican Council which opened in 1965, the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael expanded into new forms of serving the needy and to a commitment for working for justice in the world.