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The Sisters of Life is a Catholic religious institute for women, following the Augustinian rule. It is both a contemplative and active religious community, active in the promotion of anti-abortion causes. The abbreviation S.V. stands for Sorores Vitae, Latin for "Sisters of Life."
The Sisters of Life were an order first conceived of by Cardinal John Joseph O'Connor of New York, on a visit to the remains of a Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, Germany. There he placed his hands inside a crematoria oven, "felt the intermingled ashes of Jew and Christian, rabbi, priest and minister," and is recorded as proclaiming, "Good God, how could human beings do this to other human beings?" [1] Several years later, he decided to begin a new religious community in the Church, one dedicated to the promotion of anti-abortion causes, specifically working for an end to abortion and euthanasia. He proclaimed his intentions in an article entitled "Help Wanted: Sisters of Life" [2] written for the newspaper Catholic New York, in which he asked for women of higher education to especially consider joining. Many women responded to the article, and on Foundation Day, June 1, 1991, eight women joined the order. For thirteen years they remained a public association of the lay faithful—a non-religious Catholic community—until March 25, 2004, when they were formally established as a religious institute of diocesan right by Edward Michael Egan, Cardinal and Archbishop Emeritus of New York. The first Superior General of the order was Mother Agnes Mary Donovan.
Like all Catholic religious communities, the Sisters of Life take the three traditional religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Unlike other orders, they take an additional fourth vow to "protect and enhance the sacredness of human life." [3] They spend 4 hours a day in common prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, including a daily Holy Hour consisting of the Rosary, 45 minutes of meditation and Vespers. [4] Their daily work includes their aid and support to pregnant women at the Holy Respite convent, located in Toronto, Canada and Manhattan USA . They run retreats entitled "Enter Canaan" to aid post-abortive women in finding emotional and spiritual peace. At the request of Cardinal Edward Michael Egan, the Sisters of Life direct the New York Archdiocesan Family Life / Respect Life Office, which organizes anti-abortion initiatives in the archdiocese. They house the Dr. Joseph Stanton Human Life Issues Library, an archive of legal, medical and catechetical anti-abortion literature, in their Our Lady of New York convent.
Serving over 1,000 women a year in person, over phone and by email, the Visitation Mission is considered the order's most important work. [5] The Mission serves women experiencing crisis pregnancy, and seeks to provide them with both "emotional and practical resources" [6] to give birth. While half of those counseled by the Visitation Mission remain at home, others are placed in private homes or maternity facilities run by other religious orders, or with the Sisters of Life themselves, in the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, where women can stay "as long as six months prior to giving birth and up to a year afterward." [7] The Sisters of Life rely on donations of food, diapers, strollers and money to run their Visitation Mission.
The Sisters of Life run a retreat house in Stamford, Connecticut, called Villa Maria Guadalupe. Formerly operated by the Bernardine Franciscan Sisters, the Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus purchased the retreat house for the Sisters of Life, with the hope that the Sisters' ministry would "help people from around the world to deepen their spiritual life and commitment to live the challenge of being a people for life." [8]
The Sisters of Life have two convents in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and several convents in New York, United States: St. Paul the Apostle Convent, Sacred Heart of Jesus Convent, St. Barnabas Convent and St. Frances de Chantal Convent, where over 120 sisters live in community.
Frances Xavier Cabrini, also known as Mother Cabrini, was an Italian-American Catholic religious sister. She founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a religious institute that was a major support to her fellow Italian immigrants to the United States.
The Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, abbreviated VSM and also known as the Visitandines, is a Catholic religious order of Pontifical Right for women. Members of the order are also known as the Salesian Sisters or, more commonly as the Visitation Sisters.
The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, Latin: Institutum Christi Regis Summi Sacerdotis, abbreviated as ICRSS and ICKSP, is a society of apostolic life of pontifical right in communion with the Holy See of the Catholic Church. The institute has the stated goal of honouring God and the sanctification of priests in the service of the Catholic Church and souls. An integral part of the institute's charism is the use of the traditional liturgy, namely the Missal of John XXIII for Mass, the Breviary of John XXIII for the Divine Office, and the Rituale Romanum for other sacraments. The society has undertaken the restoration of a number of historic church buildings.
Frank Anthony Pavone is an American anti-abortion activist and former Catholic priest. He is the national director of Priests for Life and the chairman and pastoral director of its Rachel's Vineyard project. He is also the president of the National Pro-Life Religious Council, an umbrella group of various anti-abortion Christian denominations, and the pastoral director of the Silent No More campaign.
The Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, abbreviated RSCJ, is a Catholic centralized religious institute of consecrated life of Pontifical Right for women established in France by Madeleine Sophie Barat in 1800.
The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men founded in 1987. It follows the Capuchin Franciscan tradition.
The Community of St John Baptist (CSJB), also known as the Sisters of Mercy, or formerly Clewer Sisters, is an Anglican religious order of Augustinian nuns.
The Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, also known as the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, is a Catholic religious order that was founded in 1835 by Mary Euphrasia Pelletier in Angers, France. The religious sisters belong to a Catholic international congregation of religious women dedicated to promoting the welfare of women and girls.
The Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (SS.H.J.M.) are a group of Catholic Religious Sisters who were established in London, England, in 1903. There they are commonly known as the Chigwell Sisters. In collaboration with their associates, auxiliaries, co-workers and volunteers, the Sisters work with the poor of the world, both to identify and transform underlying causes of suffering and to meet their practical needs. However, the order has been involved in controversies that exploited such poverty, such as forced adoptions and "Mother and Baby" homes.
The Convent and Academy of the Visitation, properly known today as the Visitation Monastery, is a historic complex of Roman Catholic religious buildings and a small cemetery in Mobile, Alabama, United States. The buildings and grounds were documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1937. They were added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 24, 1992 as a part of Historic Roman Catholic Properties in Mobile Multiple Property Submission. It, along with the Convent of Mercy, is one of two surviving historic convent complexes in Mobile.
Frances Margaret Taylor, whose religious name was Mother Magdalen of the Sacred Heart was an English nurse, editor and writer, nun, and Superior General and founder of the Roman Catholic religious congregation the Poor Servants of the Mother of God.
The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a Catholic female religious congregation founded in 1880 by Frances Xavier Cabrini. Their aim is to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart by means of spiritual and corporal works of mercy.
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is one of two associations of the leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the United States. LCWR includes over 1300 members, who are members of 302 religious congregations that include 33,431 women religious in the United States as of 2018. Founded in 1956, the conference describes its charter as assisting its members to "collaboratively carry out their service of leadership to further the mission of the Gospel in today's world." The canonically-approved organization collaborates in the Catholic Church and in society to "influence systemic change, studying significant trends and issues within the church and society, utilizing our corporate voice in solidarity with people who experience any form of violence or oppression, and creating and offering resource materials on religious leadership skills." The conference serves as a resource both to its members and to the public who are seeking resources on leadership for religious life.
The Canossians are a family of two Catholic religious institutes and three affiliated lay associations that trace their origin to Magdalen of Canossa, a religious sister canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1988.
The Church of St. John is a parish church under the authority of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at 3021 Kingsbridge Avenue, Bronx, New York City. The parish was established in 1877 and has had long ties with the Religious of Jesus and Mary as their main base in New York.
Rose Philippine Duchesne, RCSJ, was a French religious sister and educator whom Pope John Paul II canonized in 1988. A native of France, she immigrated as a missionary to America, and is recognized for her care and education of Indigenous American survivors of the United States Indian removal programs.
The Cardinal O'Connor Conference on Life, also known simply as the O'Connor Conference (OCC), is the largest student-run pro-life conference in the United States. The conference was founded by Georgetown University undergraduate students in 2000 and subsequently named in honor of the late Archbishop of New York, Cardinal John Joseph O'Connor, who earned a PhD from Georgetown University and was an outspoken critic of abortion.
