The Sisters of Charity Federation in the Vincentian-Setonian Tradition is an organization of fourteen congregations of religious women in the Catholic Church who trace their lineage to Saint Elizabeth Seton, Saint Vincent de Paul, and Saint Louise de Marillac. [1]
The Sisters of Charity Federation in the Vincentian-Setonian Tradition represents approximately 4,000 vowed members and 700 lay associates/affiliates from women religious congregations throughout North America. [2] The purpose of the Federation is to facilitate collaboration in projects related to ministry and other areas of common concern.
The federation of Sisters of Charity includes:
The Company of the Daughters of Charity, founded in France on November 29, 1633, developed from the parish-based Confraternities of Charity, and became the first successful institute of non-cloistered religious women to serve in the active apostolate in France. [1]
The foundress of the American branch of the Sisters of Charity was born Elizabeth Ann Bayley, the daughter of Dr. Richard and Catherine Charlton Bayley, members of a prominent family of New York City. Elizabeth was raised in the Episcopal faith. After the death of her mother in 1777, her father married Charlotte Amelia Barclay. Their son, Guy Charleton Bayley, was the father of James Roosevelt Bayley, who converted to Roman Catholicism and later became Archbishop of Baltimore.
On January 25, 1794, Elizabeth Ann Bayley married William Magee Seton in St. Paul's Church, New York. They had five children. Seton was in the import-export business. In 1803 Mr. Seton's health deteriorated and, anticipating a better climate, he, Elizabeth, and their oldest daughter Anna Maria sailed for Leghorn, Italy, leaving the other children in care of Seton's sister, Rebecca. William Seton succumbed to tuberculosis on December 27, 1803. Elizabeth and Anna Maria were accommodated by the families of her late husband's Italian business partners, the Filicchis. While staying with them, she was introduced to Roman Catholicism. Some months later she sailed for home, arriving on June 3, 1804.
In March 1805, Elizabeth Bayley Seton was received into the Catholic Church by Father Matthew O'Brien in St. Peter's Church, Barclay Street, New York. For a time she attempted to support herself by opening a school for boys, but the widely circulated report that this was a proselytizing scheme forced the school to close. Her sons had been sent by the Filicchis to Georgetown College. She hoped to find a refuge in some convent in Canada, where her teaching would support her three daughters.
Reverend Louis William Dubourg, S.S., met Elizabeth Bayley Seton about 1806 in New York and invited her to Baltimore to establish a small boarding school for girls near the Sulpician institution, Saint Mary’s College & Seminary. [1] After a long delay, she and her daughters reached Baltimore in 1808, and she opened a school next to the chapel of St. Mary's Seminary. A school for poor children was subsequently opened in nearby Emmitsburg. Elizabeth's sisters-in-law Cecilia and Harriet Seton joined her. As a preliminary to the formation of a new community, Mrs. Seton took vows privately before Archbishop Carroll and her daughter Anna. In 1810 Bishop Flaget was commissioned by the community to obtain from France the rules of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. The rule, with some modifications, was approved by Archbishop Carroll in January 1812, and adopted. Mrs. Seton was elected superior. Others joined the community and on July 19, 1813, Mother Seton and eighteen sisters made their vows. Mother Seton died at Emmitsburg, Maryland, on January 4, 1821.
In 1814 the sisters were given charge of an orphan asylum in Philadelphia; in 1817 they were sent to New York. In the 1840s, the Emmitsburg motherhouse made plans to become affiliated with the French community. Archbishop Hughes of New York suggested that the New York community separate from Emmitsburg and become a diocesan community, which it did in 1846. Communities in Newark and Halifax (1856) grew out of New York.
In 1850 the original Emmitsburg adopted the rule and habit with cornette of the Paris house. The winged appearance of the cornette would bring the sisters the affectionate nickname "God's geese" as they flew around a hospital in their prominent wimples. [6]
The sisters in Cincinnati separated to form a diocesan community (1852). The Sisters of Charity continued to develop into independent new congregations in Convent Station (1859) and Greensburg (1870). [1]
The Federation developed from the "Conference of Mother Seton's Daughters" was founded in 1947 in part to advocate Seton's canonization, but has since expanded its role. The Conference remained loosely organized until 1965. The Decree on the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life, Perfectae Caritatis, proclaimed on October 25, 1965, by Pope Paul VI stated that: "Independent institutes and monasteries should, when opportune and the Holy See permits, form federations if they can be considered as belonging to the same religious family." [7] In 1997 the Federation gained recognition as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) at the United Nations, where it serves as an advocate for the sisters' concern for the poor at the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
At the 2004 annual meeting in New York, the Federation voted to continue to make water a focus for advocacy, while integrating it into their efforts to address structures that keep people poor around the world. Access to water, particularly in developing countries, was seen as an important key to reducing poverty. [8]
Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton was a Catholic religious sister in the United States and an educator, known as a founder of the country's parochial school system. After her death, she became the first person born in what would become the United States to be canonized by the Catholic Church. She also established the first Catholic girls' school in the nation in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where she likewise founded the first American congregation of religious sisters, the Sisters of Charity.
Many religious communities have the term Sisters of Charity in their name. Some Sisters of Charity communities refer to the Vincentian tradition, or in America to the tradition of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, but others are unrelated. The rule of Vincent de Paul for the Daughters of Charity has been adopted and adapted by at least sixty founders of religious institutes for sisters around the world.
The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth is a Catholic religious institute based in Leavenworth, Kansas who follow in the tradition of Saints Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac. A member of the Sisters of Charity Federation in the Vincentian-Setonian Tradition, the order operates schools and hospitals in the United States and Peru. Members are denominated with the post-nominal letters SCL.
The Vincentian Family comprises organizations inspired by the life and work of Vincent de Paul, a 17th-century French priest who "transformed the face of France."
The Company of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, commonly called the Daughters of Charity or Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent De Paul, is a Society of Apostolic Life for women within the Catholic Church. Its members make annual vows throughout their life, which leaves them always free to leave, without the need of ecclesiastical permission. They were founded in 1633 by Vincent de Paul and state that they are devoted to serving the poor through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
Catherine Spalding, known as Mother Spalding, was an American educator who was a co-founder and longtime mother superior of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. She pioneered education, health services and social services for girls and orphans in Louisville and other Kentucky cities. On January 6, 2003, the Louisville Courier-Journal named Spalding as the only woman among sixteen "most influential people in Louisville/Jefferson County history."
The Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul of New York, most often known as the Sisters of Charity of New York, is a religious congregation of sisters in the Catholic Church whose primary missions are education and nursing and who are dedicated in particular to the service of the poor. The motherhouse is located at Mt. St. Vincent in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. They were founded by Elizabeth Ann Seton in 1809.
The Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth are a Roman Catholic apostolic congregation of pontifical right, based in the Convent Station area of Morris Township, New Jersey, USA. The religious order was established in 1859 in Newark, New Jersey, following the example of Elizabeth Ann Seton's community that was founded in 1809 in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
A Time For Miracles is a 1980 American made-for-television biographical drama film chronicling the life story of America's first native born saint, Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton. It was produced by ABC Circle Films for the American Broadcasting Company and telecast December 21, 1980, as a Christmas special. The film was created by Beverlee Dean and directed by Michael O'Herlihy. The script was written by Henry Denker with collaboration with Sister Mary Hilaire and filmed in Georgia. A Time For Miracles starred Ryan's Hope and Star Trek: Voyager actress Kate Mulgrew as Elizabeth Seton. John Forsythe and Lorne Greene also star.
The Vincentian Studies Institute of the United States (VSI), at DePaul University, Chicago, is a Roman Catholic organization to promote the Vincentian Family.
The Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill were founded by Sister Aloysia Lowe. In 1870, she and sisters Blanche O'Keefe, Maria Theresa O'Donnell, Maria Kavanaugh and two novices were sent to western Pennsylvania from the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati and began their work, founding and staffing schools. The sisters later expanded their work to include healthcare.
The Sisters of St. Martha were founded as a religious congregation in 1900 at Antigonish, Nova Scotia. The Sisters of St. Martha are members of the Sisters of Charity Federation.
The Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati were founded in 1852 by Mother Margaret Farrell George, by the separation of the community from the Sisters of Charity in Emmitsburg, Maryland. the motherhouse of the community is at Mount Saint Joseph, Ohio.
The Sisters of Charity of the Immaculate Conception (SCIC) were established in 1854 by Honoria Conway and her companions in Saint John, New Brunswick. They serve in Canada, Peru, and Ireland.
The Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul were founded on May 11, 1849, when the four founding Sisters of Charity arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from New York City; this has been designated a National Historic Event.
Mary Xavier Mehegan, S.C. was a Roman Catholic sister who founded the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth and opened New Jersey's first four-year college for women.
The Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy is a Roman Catholic religious institute founded by Bishop John England of the Diocese of Charleston in South Carolina, in 1829 as the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. In 1949 the word "Charity" was added to the congregation's name, in order to identify it more explicitly with others that follow the Rule of Life of St. Vincent de Paul. They came to serve throughout the Eastern United States. The members of the congregation use the postnominal initials of O.L.M.
The National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton is a U.S. religious site and educational center in Emmitsburg, Maryland, that pays tribute to the life and mission of Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. It is both a minor basilica and a national shrine.
Catherine Josephine Seton was the daughter of Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the American branch of the Sisters of Charity. Catherine was the first American to join the Irish Sisters of Mercy.
Euphemia Blenkinsop, born Catherine Blenkinsop, also known as Mother Euphemia, was an Irish-born American religious sister and teacher, and visitatrix of the Daughters of Charity in the United States, from 1866 to her death in 1887.