Mary Xavier Mehegan

The step-nephew of Mother Seton, he sought a congregation of women religious to care for orphaned children and to operate parochial schools in the Diocese of Newark.

She and Sister Mary Catharine, along with five recruits for the new religious institute, took their vows on that 19 July, at that time the feast day of St. Vincent de Paul, whose Rule of Life they followed.

Approval of the new institute was received on 29 September 1859 and Mehegan was formally appointed the first Mother Superior of the new congregation, to be known as the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth (in honor of the bishop's aunt and their foundress).

[2] During the Civil War Sisters of Charity cared for soldiers on both sides in emergency hospitals set up at the train stations in Newark and Trenton.

[3] Under her leadership, the Sisters opened parish schools, academies, hospitals, a day nursery, orphanages, a home for the incurably ill, and a residence for working women.