The institute had attained great success throughout Germany when, in 1873, its members were forced into exile by the persecution of the
Kulturkampf. Some went to
South America, others emigrated to
New Orleans, United States, where, in April 1873, they founded a house and took charge of a parochial school.
Pauline Mallinckrodt followed shortly after and established a new provincial mother-house, at
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In 1887 the motherhouse, which had removed to Belgium, returned to Paderborn. The congregation was confirmed on 7 February 1888 by
Pope Leo XIII. That same year, the North American Province was divided into a North American Eastern Province and a North American Western Province. The motherhouse for the Eastern province is located in
Mendham, New Jersey, and the motherhouse of the Western province was located in
Wilmette, Illinois. The Eastern province had as its primary work that of Catholic education. During the 1950s and 1960s the Sisters added to their field of labor the care of the sick by establishing two hospitals in Pennsylvania. They have since joined to form the North American Province, based in New Jersey. The generalate is in Rome. In 1975 a group of members separated and founded the
Sisters of the Living Word. The congregation's foundress, Pauline Mallinckrodt, was
beatified by
Pope John Paul II in Rome on 14 April 1985. ==Apostolate==