US Catholic Sisters: An Untold Story

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US Catholic SistersAn Untold Story
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Why We Are Here
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• To link the story of Catholic women religious
  with the history of the United States and to make
  the story available to a broader audience.
• To honor the 50th anniversary of the LCWR
• To document the significant leadership role of
  Catholic women religious in social change, in
  building the social fabric of the country through
  education, healthcare and social service
• To tell the untold story of the leadership of
  Catholic women religious in developing and
  sustaining institutions of culture in the United
  States and broadening access to them
• To demonstrate the leadership of Catholic women
  religious in the public arena at a time when few
  women occupied leadership positions in the United
  States.

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Catholic sisters have had an impact on American
social, religious and civil history which today
is little known and appreciated. From the
earliest days of the republic, more than 220,000
women living in hundreds of religious communities
contributed to the building of America through
their lives and service, working with great
energy and dedication. Theirs is an untold
story of leadership, determination and vision
when there was as yet no public venue for women
to be heard.
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The Untold Story
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1974 LCWR President Francine Zeller, OSF
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Colonial and Immigrant Beginnings
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• Ursulines in New Orleans, first in territory that
  became part of the United States (1727)
• Carmelites in Baltimore, first in newly
  independent United States (1792)

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Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton founds Sisters of
Charity of St. Josephs founded in Emmitsburg,
Maryland, the first group of American women to
form a community (1809)
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Opening of the West

• Sisters of Charity and Sisters of Loretto in
  Kentucky (1812)
• Rose Philippine Duchesne and Religious of the
  Sacred Heart, Missouri (1819) open first free
  school west of the Mississippi.
• Beginnings of work among the Native American
  peoples

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Prejudice leads to violence burning of an
Ursuline convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts
(1834)
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• Mary Elizabeth Lange founds in Baltimore the
  Oblate Sisters of Providence, first black
  community of women (1829)

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Frances Cabrini, founder of the Missionaries
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, leads
care for immigrants.

• Mother Francis Cabrini Missionaries of the Sacred
  Heart

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• Epidemics and the consequences of immigration
  left many children orphaned. Missionary Sisters
  of the Sacred Heart
  Migration Studies,
  Staten Island

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• Two pioneering Sisters of Providence in the
  northwest
• Sisters of Providence Archives, Seattle

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Works of Mercy and Justice
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Caring for the Sick and Elderly
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• Henriette Delille founds nations second
  community of black women, the Sisters of the Holy
  Family. She also opens LaFon Nursing Facility of
  the Holy Family, the oldest continuing nursing
  facility of its kind in the United States.

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• Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, the Catholic
  convert daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, founds
  the Dominican Sisters of Relief for Incurable
  Cancer.

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Austin Carroll leads the Sisters of Mercy in the
South in caring for victims of yellow fever
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Mary Baptist Russell leads the Sisters of Mercy
in the care for the sick during epidemics in
San Francisco Sisters of Mercy also care
for the injured in the 1906 San Francisco
earthquake
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• Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word
  open smallpox hospital in Houston

Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word Archives
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Founding Hospitals and Educating Nurses
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Sister-Founded Hospitals (1866 1917)
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Schools of Nursing
Students at St. Marys Hospital School of
Nursing, Minneapolis, Minnesota (circa 1906)
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Students at Divine Providence Hospital,
Washington, DC Daughters of Charity, Emmitsburg,
Maryland
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Wartime NursingCivil War andSpanish-American War
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Civil War
At least 617 sisters from 21 different
communities representing 12 separate
orders nursed both Union and Confederate
soldiers during the Civil War
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• Sisters of Charity during the Civil War
  Satterlee
  Hospital
• Records of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia

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• Sisters of the Holy Cross, Sisters of St. Joseph
  of St. Louis, and Sisters of Charity
  of Emmitsburg, Maryland with lay nurses at
  Camp Hamilton Lexington, Kentucky
  1898.

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• A congregation of Native American Indian sisters,
  in their field uniforms, nursing in the
  Spanish-American War at
  Camp Onward in Savannah, Georgia
  
  Milford,
  Pennsylvania Historical Society

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• The Catholic Sisters were the most efficient
  veritable Angels of Mercy.
• - Lucius Chittenden, member of the cabinet of
  President Abraham Lincoln

Portrait by Florence Meyer, White House Artist
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Sisters asEducators
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During the 52-year span from 1866 to 1917, more
than 50,000 sisters devoted their entire
religious lives to teaching in parochial schools.
The statistics disclose an average increase of
107 parochial schools and33,860 students
covering 40 years.Such phenomenal explosion
would have been impossible without sacrificial
giving by the laity and commitment by the rapidly
increasing numbers of sisters who taught without
remuneration beyond bare subsistence.- Marvels
of Charity, George C. Stewart, Jr.
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Parochial School Statistics
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• Caroline Friess leads School
  Sisters of Notre Dame in opening free schools for
  children and youth

Mother Caroline Friess Archives of the School
Sisters of Notre Dame, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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Students and sisters of Our Lady of Lourdes
School in Oakland, California
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Student body at St. Marys Academy in Graceville,
c. 1892 with a Sister of St. Joseph
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Sister Marie de Lourdes Prenovost, CSJ and
students at Cathedral School, St. Paul,
1951-52 Archives of Sisters of St. Joseph, St.
Paul
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Newsboys School, New Orleans
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Sisters found, administer and staff first
Catholic colleges and universities for women
Sister Julia McGroarty, SNDdeN Founder,
Trinity College, Washington, DC
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First bachelors degree class of 1899 of the
College of Notre Dame of Maryland, the first
Catholic womens college in America, founded in
Baltimore in 1895. (Archives of the College of
Notre Dame of Maryland)
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College of New Rochelle basketball team, 1910-11
Archives of College of New Rochelle
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Sister M. Laurana, SBS, assistant professor of
art at Xavier University, c.
1960
Xavier
University Archives and Special Collections, New
Orleans
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Working for Justice and Peace
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Advocates for justice
Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ
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Women religious annually protest to close the
School of the Americas in Fort Benning,
Georgia. Some have been arrested for civil
disobedience.
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Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids, Michigan

Ardeth Platte, OP Carol Gilbert, OP and Jackie
Hudson, OP arrested and imprisoned for civil
disobedience in protesting
the proliferation of
nuclear weapons
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Work for the poor
Sister Mary Lou Daoust, MM, MD Catarina,
Guatemala, 1984 Maryknoll Archives,
Maryknoll, New York
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• Rosemarie Milazzo, MM -- Kenya Bura 1985
  
  Maryknoll Mission
  Archives Maryknoll, NY

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Sister Elise Monge, MM Quito, Ecuador -- 1977
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Martyrs for advocating for justice for the poor
Sister Joan Sawyer, killed with seven prisoners
at Lurigancho Prison in Lima, Peru in 1983
Missionary Sisters of St. Columban
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Adorers of the Precious Blood martyred
in Liberia in 1992
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Dorothy Stang, SNDdeN martyred in 2005
for her work among the indigenous people of Brazil
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Facts about theLeadership Conference of Women
Religious(LCWR)
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LCWR Founded in 1956 A membership organization
of leaders of congregations of Catholic women
religious in the United States Number of Members
Approximately 1500
representing approximately 95 of the 67,000
Catholic sisters in the United States
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The scope of the conference's concerns is broad
and includes collaborating in Catholic church and
societal efforts that influence systemic change
LCWR President Mary Luke Tobin, SL at the Second
Vatican Council
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LCWR studies significant trends and issues within
the church and society
1991 LCWR President Donna Markham, OP with Pope
John Paul II
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1979 LCWR president Theresa Kane, RSM addresses
Pope John Paul II on the inclusion of women in
the church
LCWR members utilize their corporate voice in
solidarity with people who experience any form of
violence or oppression
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