In 1966 the Federation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph was created as a union of all the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the United States who claim a common origin in the foundation at LePuy, France in 1650. It includes approximately 2,584 members of 16 Congregations throughout the United States. In addition there are 2,797 associates. During the Civil War, detachments of sisters nursed the sick soldiers in Camp Curtin and the Church Hospital, Harrisburg. Despite anti-Catholic sentiments from doctors and soldier-nurses who did not appreciate the sisters' presence, the sisters worked at the camp until its closure in April 1864. 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. with most of the membership in full or partial retirement. Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia sponsored institutions: Saint Joseph Academy McSherrystown, Pennsylvania;
Mount Saint Joseph Academy (Flourtown, Pennsylvania); Saint Joseph Villa; Saint Mary By-The-Sea Retreat House in Cape May Point, New Jersey; Norwood-Fontbonne Academy;
Holy Family Academy (Bayonne, New Jersey); SSJ Center for Spirituality Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia; and
Chestnut Hill College, in
Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania Sisters of St. Joseph, Brentwood, New York . The Sisters of St. Joseph, Brentwood is an independent diocesan congregation. In the spring of 1856 the Right Rev.
John Loughlin, first Bishop of Brooklyn, applied to the mother-house at
Philadelphia for sisters, and two religious were named for the new mission, joined during the same year by a sister from Buffalo. St. Mary's Academy, Williamsburg, was opened on September 8, 1856, and in the following year a parochial school was inaugurated. In 1860 the mother-house, novitiate, and boarding school were removed to Flushing, Long Island, whence the activity of the sisters was gradually extended over the diocese. In 1903 the mother-house and novitiate were again transferred to Brentwood, New York, where an academy was opened the same year. Sisters of St. Joseph, Brentwood sponsor, among other ministries:
Saint Joseph's College (New York),
St. Joseph High School (Brooklyn),
The Mary Louis Academy,
Fontbonne Hall Academy,
Sacred Heart Academy (New York),
Bishop Kearney High School (New York City),
Academia Maria Reina and Maria Regina Residence, a skilled nursing facility.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden, Pennsylvania In 1869 the Sisters of St. Joseph, Brentwood, (then located in Flushing, New York) sent three pioneer sisters to Ebensburg, Pennsylvania: Sisters Hortense Tello, Xavier Phelan, and Sister Austin Keane, a native of nearby Loretto, Pennsylvania, who had been baptized by Father
Demetrius Gallitzin, the pioneering priest in western Pennsylvania. Five days after their arrival in Ebensburg, the three St. Joseph Sisters opened a day-school and a boarding-school, Mount Gallitzin Seminary for Boys. In 1902 a four-story school and convent to serve as both Mt. Gallitzin Academy and their new motherhouse was dedicated in Baden. Their original motherhouse in Ebensburg was remodeled into an infant home where they nurtured newborns and toddlers from 1923 to 1959. From 1926 to 1948, 15 Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden ministered in China. Their mission in Hunan Province included an orphanage and hospital. Sister Theresa Joseph Lung, a native of Hunan who entered the congregation in 1933, remained in China after the sisters left and died there in 1994. 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. and
Bethany Hill School, both in Framingham, Massachusetts;
Fontbonne, the Early College of Boston in Milton, MA; Jackson School and Walnut Park Montessori School in Newton, MA;
Saint Joseph Preparatory High School and Literacy Connection Literacy Connection in Brighton, MA;
Regis College in Weston, MA; and Casserly House in Roslindale, MA; The mother-house is in Brighton.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Buffalo The Sisters of St. Joseph were introduced into the
Diocese of Buffalo in 1854, when three sisters from
Carondelet,
St. Louis, made a foundation at
Canandaigua,
New York. 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. The novitiate was removed from Canandaigua to Buffalo in 1861. The community developed rapidly and soon spread through different parts of the diocese. By 1868 the sisters were sufficiently strong to direct their own affairs, and elected their own superior, thus forming a new diocesan congregation. In 1891 the mother-house and novitiate were removed to the outskirts of the city, where an academy was erected. Sisters of St. Joseph of Buffalo sponsor
Mount Saint Joseph Academy in Buffalo.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester, New York In 1854 four Sisters of St. Joseph came from St. Louis, at the invitation of Bishop Timon of Buffalo, to Canandaigua, New York. In 1868, the Diocese of Rochester was created, and the community divided creating 2 communities, one in Buffalo and the other in Rochester, now with its own mother-house and novitiate at St. Mary's Boys' Orphan Asylum, later transferred to the Nazareth Academy, Rochester. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester sponsor Nazareth Schools; St. Joseph's Neighborhood Center; Daystar; the Sisters of Saint Joseph Volunteer Corps; St. Joseph's Northside Outreach and Prayer Ministry; and a volunteer program.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Northwestern Pennsylvania (Erie) The Sisters of St. Joseph of Erie were founded in 1860 by Mother Agnes Spencer of Carondelet, Missouri, who, with two other sisters, took charge of St. Ann's Academy at Corsica, Pennsylvania, where postulants were admitted. In 1864 a hospital was opened at Meadville, and the sisters took charge of the parochial schools of that city. Villa Maria Academy was opened in 1892 and in 1897 was made the novitiate and mother house of the Sisters of St. Joseph in the Erie diocese. Among the sisters ministries are: Villa Maria Elementary School,
Villa Maria Academy, Bethany House Ministry, The Heritage Apartments, Saint Vincent Health Center, Saint Mary's Home of Erie, SSJ Neighborhood Network, St. Patrick Haven, St. James Haven, and Faithkeepers Trail
Sisters of St. Joseph of Watertown, New York In 1880 several sisters from the mother-house at Buffalo made a foundation at Watertown, New York, which was later strengthened by the accession of another sister from the Erie mother-house. Sister M. Josephine Donnelly, formerly of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Erie, is considered by some to be the foundress of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Watertown as she remained when other sisters moved on to start a foundation in Michigan. From Watertown as a center, missions were opened in other parts of the diocese.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia, Kansas in
Concordia, Kansas, in 2007 In 1883 four Sisters of St. Joseph arrived at
Newton, Kansas, from Rochester, New York, and opened their first mission. After remaining there a year they located at
Concordia, Kansas, in the fall of 1884, and established the first
motherhouse in the West, in what was then the Diocese of Leavenworth. The congregation has hospitals and schools in the
Archdiocese of Chicago and the Dioceses of Marquette, Rockford, Kansas City, Omaha, Lincoln, and Concordia. The sisters currently so work in Brazil and New Mexico. Diocese of Concordia is now Diocese of Salina The Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia sponsor
Nazareth Convent and Academy, Manna House; and From 1922 to 1989 the sisters also operated
Marymount College.
Sisters of Saint Joseph of Chambery, West Hartford, Connecticut After the French Revolution, the community revived under the leadership of Jeanne Fontbonne. The order grew and branched out. One of these branches became the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambéry, founded in 1812 in the town of Chambéry in south-eastern France. Jane Sedgwick of
Stockbridge, Massachusetts, desired to establish a Catholic school in Lee, Massachusetts. 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. In 1885, five sisters of Saint Joseph of Chambéry arrived in Lee to open the school. The Congregation numbered about 700 as of 2011.
Sisters of Saint Joseph of Medaille In 1854 Sisters were sent from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Bourg house in France to establish a house at
Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, in the
Diocese of Natchez. In 1863 a novitiate was opened at
New Orleans. After establishing a central house in
New Orleans, Louisiana, the Sisters extended their ministry to the poor and suffering of Louisiana and Mississippi, opening schools, hospitals and an orphanage. Schools were subsequently opened among the French Canadians in Minnesota and Wisconsin. By 1962, the Bourg Congregation had six provinces, three in Europe and three in the United States, with missions in Africa and Latin America. In July 1977, the six provinces voted to become two separate congregations, one based in Europe, the other in America. On November 30, 1977, Rome officially declared the three American provinces to be a new Congregation in the Church: the
Sisters of Saint Joseph of Medaille. The name Medaille was chosen because it is the family name of the Jesuit priest who helped found the Sisters in 1650 and because the Sisters were geographically located in the north, central and southern areas of the United States.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Cleveland The Sisters of St. Joseph of the
Diocese of Cleveland are chiefly engaged in the
parochial schools. The sisters currently support St. Joseph Academy in Cleveland, Ohio; River's Edge, Women's Outreach Center, WellSpring Bookstore and the CSJ Prayer Line.
Sisters of St. Joseph of La Grange, Illinois The Sisters of St. Joseph were established in
La Grange, Illinois, October 9, 1899, by two Sisters under Mother Stanislaus Leary, formerly superior of the diocesan community at
Rochester, New York. On July 14, 1900, the cornerstone of the mother-house was laid. Currently the sisters sponsor
Nazareth Academy, a Catholic co-educational high school in
La Grange Park,
Illinois. Among the ministries sponsored by Sisters of St. Joseph of La Grange are the School on Wheels,
Nazareth Academy, Ministry of the Arts, and Christ in the Wilderness
Sisters of St. Joseph of Nazareth, Michigan In 1889 Sisters of St. Joseph from the Diocese of
Ogdensburg, New York established a new congregation at
Kalamazoo, Michigan. The founding sisters came to Kalamazoo at the request of the Diocese of Detroit and Msgr. Francis O'Brien for the purpose of establishing a hospital, later named Borgess Hospital. 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. The novitiate was transferred, in 1897, to Nazareth, a hamlet founded by the Sisters on a farm. Among the institutions sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Nazareth are the Dillon Complex for Independent Living, Transformations Spirituality Center, Ascension Health and Our Lady of Guadalupe Middle School for Girls.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Tipton, Indiana The Sisters of St. Joseph of Tipton were founded in 1888 by Gertrude Moffitt at St. John the Baptist Parish in Tipton, Indiana. The sisters worked as teachers in a number of parish schools; opened and staffed St. Joseph Academy from 1892 until its closure in 1972; sponsored Good Samaritan Hospital and St. Joseph Hospital in
Kokomo, Indiana (previously Howard County Hospital, now St. Vincent Kokomo Hospital), and started the Hospice St. Joseph mission in Port-au-Prince, Haiti (now administered by the Diocese of Norwich, CT.) In 2007, the Tipton community joined with six other communities to form the Congregation of St. Joseph. In 2016, the property owned by the Sisters in Tipton was sold to the
Diocese, which now operates the St. Joseph Retreat and conference Center. The few remaining sisters moved to other locations of the Congregation of St. Joseph.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Wheeling, West Virginia In 1853 seven sisters from Carondelet, Missouri, opened a private orphanage and hospital in Wheeling, and in 1856 took possession of a building chartered by the Assembly of Virginia for a hospital. From 19 October 1860, the community was independent of the St. Louis mother-house. During the Civil War the hospital was rented by the Government and the sisters enrolled in government service. After the war and the reorganization of the hospital on its present lines, the sisters extended their activities to various parts of the diocese. The motherhouse was included in the
Mount Saint Joseph listing on the
National Register of Historic Places, added in 2008. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Wheeling sponsor the SSJ Health and Wellness Foundation, the SSJ Charitable Fund and a variety of programs under Holy Family Child Care & Development.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Wichita, Kansas 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. In August 1887, four Sisters of St. Joseph were commissioned to go from Concordia, Kansas, to open a parochial school at Abilene, Kansas, at that time in the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Leavenworth. In the fall of 1887, word was received from Rome that the state of Kansas had been divided into dioceses. At the direction of Bishop Fink, who did not wish to lose the sisters from his diocese, the Abilene sisters constituted themselves a separate congregation with an act of incorporation of March 25, 1888. The following year the Right Rev. L. M. Pink, Bishop of Leavenworth, decided that these Sisters should belong to his diocese exclusively, and in so doing they became the nucleus of a new diocesan congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, having their motherhouse established at Abilene, under the title of Mount St. Joseph's Academy. The congregation increased in numbers and soon branched out, doing parochial school work throughout the diocese. In 1892 the name of the Diocese of Leavenworth was changed to Kansas City, Kansas, and for the time being the Sisters of St. Joseph were diocesan Sisters of the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City. In 1896, when the re-division of the three Kansas dioceses, was begun, Bishop Fink of Kansas City, had their motherhouse transferred from Abilene to Parsons. But after the division was made the following year, Parsons was in the Wichita diocese, and the mother-house of the Sisters of St. Joseph being in Parsons, the congregation belonged to the Wichita Diocese, having mission-houses in both the Diocese of Concordia and the Diocese of Kansas City. In 1907 a colony of these Sisters opened a sanitarium at Del Norte, Colorado, in the Diocese of Denver. In 1950, the congregation responded to the need for medical services in Kyoto, Japan. 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. When the sisters relocated to a new motherhouse in 2018, the previous one was taken over by Saint Francis Ministries, an Episcopal child and family services ministry, to house teenage girls aging out of foster care, and also a Head Start Program.
Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine, Florida At the close of the
American Civil War,
Augustin Verot, Bishop of Savannah and Administrator Apostolic of Florida, visited his native city of
Le Puy where he challenged the Sisters of St. Joseph to come to
St. Augustine. Many sisters volunteered. The chosen eight were Sister Marie Sidonie Rascle, Superior: and Sisters Marie Julie Roussel, Marie Josephine Deleage, Marie Clemence Freycenon, St. Pierre Borie, Marie Joseph Cortial, Julie Clotilde Arsac, and Marie Celenie Joubert. They arrived in Florida at Picolata Landing on the shores of the St. Johns River, September 2, 1866. The sisters from France adjusted heroically to a different language, culture, and climate with joy and faith. They welcomed new members as they mourned the disproportionate number of those who succumbed to disease and unhealthy conditions. At the direction of Bishop Verot, the sisters were sent to six missions throughout Florida and Georgia. Their primary ministry was to black people. Owing to the departure of the Sisters of Mercy from the city, the education of the whites also devolved on the new community. By 1876 the sisters in Georgia had been separated from those in France, but the sisters in Florida were established as a province of LePuy. At the close of the century, provincial government was abruptly terminated by Bishop John Moore. This brought about the establishment of the Diocesan Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of St. Augustine, Florida, in 1899. To maintain their charitable works and to provide self-support, the sisters erected academies. These institutions served as centers of catechetical work until they were relinquished and replaced by parochial and diocesan schools. The sisters augmented their resources by such means as lace-making and private lessons in art, music, and language. 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. Gradually they became more involved in the multi-faceted aspects of health care; and they assumed work with the aging, unwed mothers, and migrants. The Congregation opened schools in Puerto Rico in the fifties. Two decades later in 1976, the sisters in Puerto Rico became an independent institute.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange (California) The Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange is among the youngest of the American congregations and traces its roots through the St. Joseph congregations of La Grange, Illinois; Concordia, Kansas; Rochester, New York; and Carondelet, Missouri. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange were established in 1912 by Mother Bernard Gosselin. She and eight sisters left LaGrange, Illinois, near Chicago to establish what is now
St. Bernard's High School in
Eureka, California. As the Congregation grew, the Sisters were better able to address more of the needs of the area. The
1918 flu pandemic presented a new challenge to the community. 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. In 1920, the Sisters opened St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka. Today the hospital is by far the largest medical facility on Coastal California north of its even larger medical facility located in
Santa Rosa, California, as well as others in Southern California. By 1922, the Sisters were teaching in several Southern California areas and recognized that the community could better develop its ministries by moving the Motherhouse to
Orange. The first ministries of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange were in education and health care. Schools and hospitals were staffed primarily by the Sisters and in the 1940s and 1950s the number of institutions directed by the Congregation increased steadily. In the 1940s the Sisters extended their work in health, education and religious instruction to the people of Papua New Guinea and Australia. Today, the Congregation's commitment to education is expressed in a variety of forms including elementary, secondary, university and other adult education. The commitment to extend their healing mission is expressed through acute care hospitals, rehabilitation programs, home health care, community education, primary care clinics, and wellness programs. 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. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange are one of three sponsoring religious communities of
Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. They also have a special partnership with the Western American Province of the
Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary dating back to the 1968 signing of the Marymount Accords when St. Joseph's College of Orange merged with Marymount College of Los Angeles and assumed the Marymount name. Five years later, Marymount College merged with Loyola University of Los Angeles as the school assumed its current name, Loyola Marymount University. 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).
Sisters of St. Joseph of Lyon, Winslow, Maine In 1906 Father Joseph Forest requested of the Sisters of St. Joseph to come to the Diocese of Portland, Maine. With the bishop's approval, eight Sisters made their way to Maine where they would staff a parochial school and a girls' boarding school in Jackman. The need was for bilingual teachers and none of the Sisters were familiar with English. They made haste to learn words and expressions so they could communicate with the children. At the time of their arrival, there were approximately 80 families in Jackman, mostly of Canadian origin so they spoke French. Children came from miles around, even from Canada, to be educated by the Sisters. Many of the children went home only at the end of the school year because of transportation and harsh weather. A second group of Sisters came into Maine in 1909, this time in South Berwick. The site of the convent was the former Paul's Hotel, where Lafayette had stayed on one of his trips to the United States. The Sisters became known primarily for their education apostolate in the diocese. 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. Only in 1958, as the number of Sisters increased sufficiently to establish a Province in Maine did the Congregation appoint a provincial superior.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield (Massachusetts) In September 1880, seven Sisters of St. Joseph were sent from
Flushing,
Long Island, to take charge of a parochial school at Chicopee Falls,
Massachusetts. They were followed, two years later, by seven Sisters for
Webster, and in 1883 by twelve more for the cathedral parish school in
Springfield. In 1885 the Springfield mission was constituted the motherhouse of an independent diocesan congregation. Among the ministries sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield are Mont Marie Child Care Center, Mont Marie Health Care Center, Inc, Mont Marie Senior Residence, and Mont Marie Labyrinth. As of 2015, there were about 250 Sisters the Springfield Congregation continuing to serve through a variety of ministries. In later years the Sisters ran a Montessori school, St. Joseph Montessori, from their convent atop Townsend Hill, across from the former Blessed Sacrament church. The convent was built in the mid-1950s and closed in the 1990s, replaced with Atlantis Charter School. The school eventually merged with St. George's School in Westport to form the Montessori School of the Angels, which has since itself closed.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Rutland, Vermont In 1873 the Rev. Charles Boylan of
Rutland (town), Vermont petitioned the mother-house of the Sisters of St. Joseph at
Flushing,
Long Island, for sisters to take charge of his school. Several sisters were sent, and a novitiate was opened at Rutland on October 15, 1876. The Sisters of Saint Joseph founded
Mount Saint Joseph Academy. 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. ==Federation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Canada==