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.
Thomas-Louis Connolly was born in Cork in 1815. At the age of sixteen Thomas entered the Capuchin Novitiate, and at eighteen he was sent to Rome for intensive study and training. In 1838 he was ordained to the priesthood in the Cathedral of Lyon, France. He then returned to Ireland, where he worked as a prison chaplain in Dublin.[1]
When Right Reverend William Walsh went to Halifax in 1842 as Coadjutor to Bishop William Fraser of Arichat, Nova Scotia, Father Connolly accompanied him as his secretary. Upon their arrival in Nova Scotia, the Bishop found ecclesiastical affairs in an unsettled state because of the discord between the Scots and the Irish. Bishop Walsh appointed Connolly administrator and in 1845 vicar general. During the years that Father Connolly held this position, he worked tirelessly among the poor, especially caring for the immigrants who arrived at the port. During an epidemic among these people, he contracted the disease and was seriously ill. Upon the death of Bishop Dollard, Connolly was consecrated on August 15, 1852.[1]
Honoria Conway
Honoria Conway (June 18, 1815 – May 27, 1892) was born while her father was garrisoned at Dover Castle in England. Her family was Welsh-Irish and she spent her early years at Ballinasloe, Ireland. Her parents were Michael and Eleanor McCarthy Conway. In 1837 she and her widowed mother immigrated to St. John to join her older sister and brother-in-law. They eventually settled with Mrs. Conway's brother in Meteghan, Nova Scotia.[2]
Bishop Connolly had contacted the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in New York seeking sisters to staff a planned orphanage and Catholic schools in his diocese. He had sent Miss Conway to the novitiate in New York to prepare for the foundation of a local community.[3] At age 37 she entered the novitiate at Mount St. Vincent, New York, taking the name Sister Mary Vincent.[4]
Sisters of Charity of St. John
In 1854 Bishop Connolly of Saint John again contacted the novitiate of the Sisters of Charity at Mount St. Vincent in New York, to appeal for help with a poor population that included many recent immigrants who had left Ireland in the "Great Migration" of the 1847 Great Famine. Many of them still felt the effects of the "ship's fever" typhus epidemic" from the crossing.[1] Then in the summer of 1854, an epidemic of cholera broke out and 1,500 died, leaving many children orphaned.[4]
Honoria Conway and three companions traveled from New York to New Brunswick and on October 21, 1854, Bishop Connolly accepted their vows as Sisters of Charity of Saint John, a new diocesan religious congregation.[5] At the time of this move, it is possible that Honoria was still a novice; she had been in New York for just over a year. In accordance with custom of the times regarding diocesan religious, the bishop appointed the superior, choosing Honoria. Within a few years she began to serve as Novice Mistress as well. Despite her relative youth, it seems she was well suited by ability and temperament for fulfilling dual roles.[4]
As their numbers increased, the sisters expanded their ministry to care of the aged and other health care apostolates. They opened five hospitals and missions in six other Provinces of Canada. Visiting the sick remains an important ministry in Canada and Peru.[5] As early as 1857, the Sisters were invited to establish the first of five convent-schools in New Brunswick’s northern Acadia n area.
The Sisters came to Saskatchewan in 1906, when three sisters arrived in Prince Albert to care for and teach the children at St. Patrick’s Orphanage.[6]
Sisters of Charity of the Immaculate Conception
Up until 1914, the sisters operated as a diocesan community. In that year, they received papal approval and a new name. In 1924 fifty-three French-speaking Acadian sisters withdrew to form a new community in order to preserve their language and culture. This community became Les Religieuses de Notre-Dame-du-Sacré-Cœur, (Dieppe, New Brunswick), and concentrated their apostolate in the French-speaking areas of New Brunswick. Both orders are members of the Sisters of Charity Federation in the Vincentian-Setonian Tradition.[5]
For more than a decade, the public has been welcomed to ecumenical Evening Prayer in the Saint John Region of New Brunswick.
The Sisters serve in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and Peru.[7] In the Archdiocese of Vancouver, their ministries include health care, pastoral care, and teaching including in the missions.[8]
The Society of St Vincent de Paul is an international voluntary organization in the Catholic Church, founded in 1844 for the sanctification of its members by personal service of the poor.
Catherine Labouré, D.C. was a French nun who was a member of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul and is a Marian visionary. She is believed to have relayed the request from the Blessed Virgin Mary to create the famous Miraculous Medal of Our Lady of Graces worn by millions of people around the world. Labouré spent forty years caring for the aged and infirm. For this, she is called the patroness of seniors.
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 Sisters of St. Joseph, also known as the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph and abbreviated C.S.J. or S.S.J., is a Roman Catholic religious congregation of women founded in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, in 1650. This Congregation, named for Saint Joseph, has approximately 14,000 members worldwide: about 7,000 in the United States; 2,000 in France; and are active in 50 other countries.
The Company of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, called in English 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 need of ecclesiastical permission. They were founded in 1633 and state that they are devoted to serving the poor through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
There are a number of Roman Catholic religious orders or congregations with Immaculate Conception in their name. Several of them are discussed here. There are links to articles on other ones in the "See also" section below.
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.
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.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus is a Roman Catholic diocese in the Ecclesiastical Province of Cincinnati covering 23 counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The episcopal see of the diocese is situated at Columbus. The diocese was erected on March 3, 1868 by Pope Pius IX out of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. On October 21, 1944 the diocese lost territory when Pope Pius XII erected the Diocese of Steubenville.
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada is a cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint John located at 91 Waterloo Street in the city's central neighborhood of Waterloo Village.
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 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.
Thomas-Louis Connolly was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest, Capuchin, vicar general of the diocese of Halifax, Bishop of Saint John, and Archbishop of Halifax from 1859 to 1876.
Joseph Dixon 1806 - 1866 was an Irish Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All-Ireland.
Michael O'Farrell DD, C.M., an Australian suffragan bishop, was the fourth Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bathurst, New South Wales. O'Farrell was consecrated by the Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Cattaneo in 1920 and served until his death in 1928. O'Farrell was the first Vincentian bishop in Australia.
Mary Vincent Conway, Sister of Charity and educator, c.18 June 1815 – 27 May 1892.
Catholic sisters and nuns in Canada have been an important presence since the 17th century.
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