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Many religious communities have the termSisters of Charity in their name. SomeSisters of Charity communities refer to theVincentian tradition alone, or in America to the tradition of SaintElizabeth Ann Seton (whose sisters are also of the Vincentian tradition), but others are unrelated. The rule of SaintVincent de Paul for the Daughters of Charity has been adopted and adapted by at least sixty founders ofreligious institutes forsisters around the world.
In 1633, Vincent de Paul, a French priest andLouise de Marillac, a widow, established the Company of theDaughters of Charity as a group of women dedicated to serving the "poorest of the poor". They set up soup kitchens, organized community hospitals, established schools and homes for orphaned children, offered job training, taught the young to read and write, and improved prison conditions. Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul both died in 1660, and by this time there were more than forty houses of the Daughters of Charity in France, and the sick poor were cared for in their own dwellings in twenty-six parishes in Paris. The French Revolution shut down all convents, but the society was restored in 1801 and eventually spread to Austria, Australia,[1] Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Portugal, Turkey, Britain and the Americas.[2]
In 1809, the AmericanElizabeth Ann Seton founded the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph, adapting the rule of the French Daughters of Charity for her Emmitsburg, Maryland, community.
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In 1817, Mother Seton sent three Sisters to New York City to establish an orphanage.[3] In 1829, four Sisters of Charity from Emmitsburg, Maryland, traveled to Cincinnati, to open St. Peter’s Girl’s Orphan Asylum and School.[4] In 1850, the Sulpician priests of Baltimore successfully negotiated that the Emmitsburg community be united with the international community based in Paris. The foundations in New York and Cincinnati decided to become independent diocesan congregations. Six separate religious congregations trace their roots to the beginnings of the Sisters of Charity in Emmitsburg. In addition to the original community of Sisters at Emmitsburg (now part of the Vincentian order), they are based inNew York City;Cincinnati, Ohio;Halifax, Nova Scotia;Convent Station, New Jersey; andGreensburg, Pennsylvania.[citation needed]
In 2011, the Daughters of Charity established The Province of St. Louise, bringing together the West Central, East Central, Southeast, and Northeast Provinces of the United States.[5] Los Altos Hills in California remains a separate province.[6]
Sisters of Charity Federation in the Vincentian-Setonian Tradition:
The most famous convent is at 140 Rue du Bac inParis, France,Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal founded in 1633 by Vincent de Paul. This was where Catholics believe SisterCatherine Labouré later received the vision of Immaculate Mary on the eve of St. Vincent's feast day in 1830, as well as the dispensation of theMiraculous Medal.
Many other groups calledSisters of Charity have also founded and operate educational institutions, hospitals and orphanages:
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TheReligious Sisters of Charity (or Irish Sisters of Charity), founded byMary Aikenhead in 1815, were one of the orders involved in the controversialMagdalene laundries.[15][16]
