Sisters of St. Joseph
The Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of Lyon number nearly 1,000, serving in four provinces (Maine, Mexico, India and Europe) in fifteen countries.
[3] In 1902 many French houses of the congregation were closed by the Government, in consequence of which a large number of Sisters left for Denmark, Russia and the United States.
Other Provinces and Regions are located in Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, India, Italy, Mozambique, Norway, Pakistan, Sweden and Tanzania.
In the summer of 1864, two Sisters of St Joseph of Annecy set out on a voyage from India to the UK to open a community in the small town of Devizes, Wiltshire, England.
The Know-Nothing spirit, which had but a short time previously led to the Philadelphia riots was still rampant, and the sisters had much to suffer from bigotry and difficulties of many kinds.
In October 1858, under the patronage of St. John Neumann, the congregation in Philadelphia began to take a more definite development by the establishment of a mother-house at Mount St. Joseph, Chestnut Hill.
When the number of religious members increased to between three and four hundred, and the works entrusted to them became so numerous and varied as to necessitate an organization more detailed and definite, steps were undertaken to obtain the papal approbation, which was received in 1895.
Shortly after, under Surgeon General Smith, they undertook more active duty on the floating hospital, Whilldin, which received the wounded from both sides at the battle of Yorktown, and other southern battle-fields.
[12] For two thirds of the 1900s, the group supplied teachers to hundreds of elementary and secondary schools in the Philadelphia area, educating generations of children and young adults.
The changes in lifestyle and ministry that were common in Catholic religious institutes of women in the late 1960s took a little longer to catch up with this group who held on to convent living in traditional parish settings as well as a modified habit and veil up to the mid-1980s.
The community has sheltered refugees from Cuba, Haiti, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Bosnia, and Kosovo, and has been instrumental in helping them find homes in this country.
In 1997, the sisters started Girls they established a separate non-profit corporation to operate Villa St. Joseph, a non-sectarian, 120-bed, long-term care facility with a specialized unit for Alzheimer's patients.
They are chaplains, foster parents, and pastoral ministers; they include a lawyer, drug and alcohol interventionists, counselors, retreat directors, and college professors.
Two years later one of these sisters was brought to Buffalo by Bishop Timon to assume charge of Le Couteulx St. Mary's Institution for the instruction of deaf mutes, which had lately been established.
Since there weren't enough sisters in the United States to aid in the running of the school, Jane eventually went to Rome to appeal to Pope Leo XIII to send help.
The sisters currently support St. Joseph Academy in Cleveland, Ohio;[48] River's Edge,[49] Women's Outreach Center,[49] Seeds of Literacy,[50] WellSpring Bookstore[51] and the CSJ Prayer Line.
Currently the sisters sponsor Nazareth Academy, a Catholic co-educational high school in La Grange Park, Illinois.
At about the same time these first sisters, under the leadership of Mother Margaret Mary Lacy, began an orphanage and a school in addition to establishing their motherhouse at Nazareth on the outskirts of the city of Kalamazoo.
[57] Among the institutions sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Nazareth are the Dillon Complex for Independent Living, Transformations Spirituality Center,[58] Ascension Health and Our Lady of Guadalupe Middle School for Girls.
In 1883, Mother Stanislaus Leary of Rochester, New York stopped in Kansas en route to Arizona, and opened a mission which would develop into the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia.
Three sisters began a mission which today sponsors a kindergarten, day nursery, medical services for senior citizens, a disabled children's hospital, and a special education school.
During the years of rapid expansion in the developing Church of Florida, and with the support of Archbishop Joseph P. Hurley, the majority of the sisters gave their time to education, which included instruction of students who were deaf, blind, developmentally disabled, or otherwise handicapped.
The Sisters responded as best they could at the time, but they realized that by establishing a hospital they could provide a health care service which would effectively address the personal, social and spiritual needs of the area.
The works of the Congregation have expanded, however, beyond education and health care to also include such things as helping new immigrants, feeding the hungry, giving shelter to the homeless, and fostering spiritual development.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange sponsor the following institutions: École Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, San Francisco; Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles; Mission Hospital, Mission Viejo; Queen of the Valley Medical Center, Napa; St. Jude Medical Center, Fullerton; and Rosary High School, Fullerton (1965–1976).
The Sisters in Maine maintained their link with the Motherhouse in Lyon, France through frequent correspondence as well as the regular canonical visits from the Mother General or one of her assistants.
[76] In 1902 nine Sisters of St. Joseph from the mother-house at Le Puy took charge of the school in the French parish of St-Roch, Fall River, Massachusetts.
[77] In 2001, Sisters of St. Joseph of Rutland, Vermont joined the Springfield community which also covers Worcester, the Berkshires, Rhode Island and even Louisiana and Uganda.
The city was filled with Irish immigrants who had fled the ravages of famine at home, and the Sisters attended to the needs of orphans, widows and people who were sick and dying.
One sister who had come from Quebec, Thérèse de Jésus (Cécile Drolet), suggested to the Mother General that the congregation find a new home in Canada.
