Franciscan Sisters of Allegany

Last updated

The congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, with its motherhouse at St. Elizabeth's Motherhouse, Allegany, New York, was founded in 1859 by the Very Rev. Father Pamfilo of Magliano, O.F.M.

Contents

History

Father Pamfilo had come to the United States at the invitation of Bishop John Timon, C.M., of the Diocese of Buffalo, in order to provide education for the young Catholics of Western New York. To this end, he founded the College of St. Bonaventure (now St. Bonaventure University).

The bishop had reservations about having mixed classes of boys and girls being taught by the friar. He therefore suggested that Father Pamfilo should establish a group of religious sisters for this work. [1] In keeping with this, the friar accepted the request of Mary Jane Todd to commit herself to the consecrated life, and, on April 25, 1859, in the chapel of the new college he gave her the habit of the Franciscan Third Order Regular and the name of Sister Mary Joseph. She was joined by two other women by the end of the year, Sister Mary Bridget and Sister Mary Teresa, a native of New Jersey, who, at the age of 15, had been recruited for this vocation by Father Pamfilo. This allowed the formation of a new congregation.

The Sisters opened St. Elizabeth Academy in the town of Allegany in 1860, followed soon by a parochial school at the Sparish of St. Francis of Assisi in Manhattan, staffed by the friars.

The Sisters remained under the authority of Father Pamfilo until 1865, when he gave them a set of statutes to govern their life which he had adapted from the Franciscan Sisters of Glasgow, Scotland. At that time, the Sisters held their first Chapter and elected Mother Mary Teresa as the first Superior General of the congregation. She served in that position for the next 55 years.

In 1866, at the request of Archbishop John McCloskey, Fr. Pamfilo sent friars to New York City, where they opened St. Anthony's Church on Sullivan Street to serve the Italian and Irish immigrants. Realizing they needed additional assistance, the friars called on the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany and St. Anthony's School was opened in 1874. Although the school closed in 2005, the sisters of St. Anthony Convent continue to serve in the parish. [2]

In 1879, three Sisters were sent to Jamaica, British West Indies, to assist the Franciscan Sisters of Glasgow, who had established a boarding and day school for girls, which they named "The Immaculate Conception Academy". [3] [4]

They were the first congregation founded in the United States to send overseas missionaries. Missions in Latin America were established in the 20th century.

Healthcare

The congregation expanded into health care in 1883, opening hospitals. They operated two hospitals in Manhattan, St. Elizabeth Hospital in Upper Manhattan, and St. Clare's Hospital in Hells Kitchen. St. Clare's was one of the first hospitals in the nation to focus on the care of AIDS patients. On completion of her term of office as leader of the Allegany Franciscan congregation, Sister Regina Catherine Kane, herself, went to St. Clare's to assist patient with AIDS, a service the Hospital rendered until its closing in 2007. [5] Both are now closed.

Florida ministry

In 1927 the sisters arrived in Miami, Florida to staff Allison Hospital, established by businessman James A. Allison. It was later renamed St. Francis Hospital and closed in 1992 after being purchased for real estate development. In 1931 the sisters acquired Faith Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, renaming it St. Anthony's Hospital. In 1934 they established St. Joseph Hospital in Tampa. The last two Allegany Franciscans left Miami for their motherhouse in December 2019. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Bonaventure University</span> Franciscan university in Saint Bonaventure, New York, U.S.

St. Bonaventure University is a private Franciscan university in St. Bonaventure, New York. It has 2,381 undergraduate and graduate students. The Franciscans established the university in 1858.

The Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity are a Congregation of Roman Catholic apostolic religious women. The congregation was founded in 1869 in Manitowoc, Wisconsin in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee, later part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay. The sisters have active apostolates in education, health care, spiritual direction, and other community ministries. As of 2021, there are 188 sisters in the community. The FSCC is a member of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, an organization which represents women religious in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Alfred Moes</span>

Mary Alfred Moes, was a Roman Catholic nun who was instrumental in establishing first the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate in Joliet, Illinois, as well as the Sisters of Saint Francis of Rochester, Minnesota. She was also the founder of St. Mary's Hospital, Rochester, Minnesota, which became part of the famed Mayo Clinic. Moes had been given a vision from God of a great hospital rising out of the cornfields around Rochester–the little country town, with its one doctor. To that hospital, she had been told in her vision, would come patients from every part of the world and from every nation. And she had seen the name ‘Mayo’ respected the world over for surgical achievements.

The Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration is a papal congregation of the Roman Catholic Church, founded on July 20, 1863, by Mother Maria Theresia Bonzel in Olpe, Germany. In 1875, they opened St. Elizabeth Hospital in Lafayette, Indiana; now part of the Franciscan Health healthcare system. In 1890 they founded Saint Francis Normal School, a teacher training school; which is now the University of Saint Francis (Indiana).

The Third Order of Saint Francis is a third order in the Franciscan tradition of Christianity, founded by the medieval Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi.

The Lourdes Health System was a pair of two hospitals, Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden, New Jersey and Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County in Willingboro, New Jersey. Administrative offices are located at its Camden facility. The Franciscan Sisters of Allegany founded the health system in 1950 and is a member of Trinity Health. On July 1, 2019 Virtua Health purchased both locations from Trinity Health and renamed them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Anthony of Padua Church (Manhattan)</span> Church in New York , United States

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cajetan J. B. Baumann</span> American architect

Brother Cajetan J. B. Baumann was a Franciscan friar and a noted American architect. Baumann’s designs were incredibly progressive, providing modern interpretations of Gothic architecture.

The Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God are an institute of religious sisters in the Catholic Church belonging to the Third Order Regular of St. Francis. They were founded in 1910 in Santarém, Brazil, by the Rt. Rev. Armand August Bahlmann, O.F.M., and Mother Immaculata, both natives of Germany, to educate the children of the poor throughout the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pamfilo of Magliano</span>

Pamfilo of Magliano, O.S.F., was an Italian Franciscan friar, who went to the United States in 1855 to help establish the Order there. He was responsible for the establishment of major institutions of the Order in the Northeastern United States. He founded two religious institutes of Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis.

Mary Ignatius Hayes, O.S.F., also known as Mother Mary Ignatius of Jesus, was an Anglican religious sister who was later received into the Catholic Church and became a Franciscan sister. Her lifetime of religious service, in the course of which she traveled widely, led to the establishment of three separate religious congregations of Franciscan sisters and the establishment of the Poor Clare nuns in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franciscan Hospitaller Sisters of the Immaculate Conception</span> Catholic religious institute

The Franciscan Hospitaller Sisters of the Immaculate Conception are members of a Roman Catholic religious institute of consecrated women, which was founded in Portugal in 1871. They follow the Rule of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis. and, as the term “hospitaller” indicates, focus their ministries on a spirit of medical care. Their charism emphasizes hospitality and service under the model of the Good Samaritan. In this congregation, the postnominal initials used after each sister's name is "F.H.I.C."

The Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities was formed in 2004 with the union of three separate congregations: Sisters of St Francis of Syracuse, Sisters of St. Francis of the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin, and the Sisters of St. Francis Third Order Regular of Buffalo. During the process of the reorganization, the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Divine Child merged with the Williamsville Franciscans in 2003. The Sisters of St. Francis of Millvale merged with the congregation in 2007.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.