1.
Missionaries of Charity
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The Missionaries of Charity is a Roman Catholic religious congregation established in 1950 by Saint Teresa of Calcutta, better known as Mother Teresa. In 2012 it consisted of over 4,500 religious sisters, members of the order designate their affiliation using the orders initials, M. C. A member of the congregation must adhere to the vows of chastity, poverty, obedience, today, the order consists of both contemplative and active branches in several countries. Missionaries care for those who include refugees, former prostitutes, the ill, sick children, abandoned children, lepers, people with AIDS, the aged. They have schools run by volunteers to educate children and run soup kitchens as well as other services according to the community needs. They have 19 homes in Kolkata alone which include homes for women, orphaned children, and homes for the dying, and for those dying of AIDS, a school for children. These services are provided, without charge, to people regardless of their religion or social status, in 1963, Brother Andrew founded the Missionary Brothers of Charity in Australia along with Mother Teresa. In 1965, by granting a Decree of Praise, Pope Paul VI granted Mother Teresas request to expand her congregation to other countries, the Congregation started to grow rapidly, with new homes opening all over the globe. The congregations first house outside India was in Venezuela, and others followed in Rome and Tanzania, and eventually in many countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe, including Albania. In 1979 the Contemplative branch of the Brothers was added and in 1984 a priest branch, joseph Langford, combining the vocation of the Missionaries of Charity with the Ministerial Priesthood. As with the Sisters, the Fathers live a simple lifestyle without television. They neither smoke nor drink alcohol and beg for their food and they make a visit to their families every five years but do not take annual holidays. Lay Catholics and non-Catholics constitute the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa, the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, the first home of the Missionaries of Charity in the United States was established in the South Bronx, New York. In the USA, the Missionaries of Charity are affiliated with the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious and they are identified by the wearing of religious habits, and loyalty to church teaching. By 1996, the organisation was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries, in 1990, Mother Teresa asked to resign as head of the Missionaries, but was soon voted back in as Superior General. On March 13,1997, six months before Mother Teresas death, Sister Mary Prema was elected to succeed Sister Nirmala during a general chapter held in Kolkata in April 2009. In July 1998 in Al Hudaydah, Yemen, three Missionaries of Charity, two Indians and a Filipina, were shot and killed as they left a hospital. In March 2016 in Aden, Yemen, sixteen people were shot, among the dead were four missionary sisters, Sisters Marguerite and Reginette from Rwanda, Sister Anselm from India and Sister Judit from Kenya
2.
Walters Art Museum
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The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, is a public art museum founded and opened in 1934. It holds collections established during the mid-19th Century, located across the back alley, a block south of the Walters mansion on West Monument Street/Mount Vernon Place, on the northwest corner of North Charles Street at West Centre Street. The following year, The Walters reopened its original building after a dramatic three-year physical renovation and replacement of internal utilities. The Archimedes Palimpsest was on loan to the Walters Art Museum from a collector for conservation. This was one of the largest and most comprehensive such releases made by any museum, the Walters collection of ancient art includes examples from Egypt, Nubia, Greece, Rome, Etruria and the Near East. In 1911, Henry Walters purchased almost 100 gold artifacts from the Chiriqui region of western Panama in Central America, the museum owns the oldest surviving Chinese wood-and-lacquer image of the Buddha. It is exhibited in a gallery dedicated solely to this work, the Museum holds one of the largest and finest collections of Thai bronze, scrolls, and banner paintings in the world. Islamic art in all media is represented at the Walters, the Walters Museum owns an array of Islamic manuscripts. Walters Art Museum, MS W.613 contains five Mughal miniatures from a very important Khamsa of Nizami made for the Emperor Akbar, Henry Walters assembled a collection of art produced during the Middle Ages in all the major artistic media of the period. This forms the basis of the Walters medieval collection, for which the Museum is best known internationally. Considered one of the best collections of art in the United States, the Museums holdings include examples of metalwork, sculpture, stained glass, textiles, icons. Sculpted heads from the royal Abbey of St. Denis are rare surviving examples of sculptures that are directly connected with the origins of Gothic art in 12th Century France. An ivory casket covered with scenes of jousting knights is one of about a dozen such objects to survive in the world, many of these works are on display in the Museums galleries. Works in the collection are the subject of active research by the curatorial and conservation departments of the museum. The collection of European Renaissance and Baroque art features holdings of paintings, sculpture, furniture, ceramics, metal work, arms, the museum has one of ten surviving examples of the Sèvres pot-pourri vase in the shape of a ship from the 1750s and 1760s. William and Henry Walters collected works by late 19th Century French academic masters, Henry Walters was particularly interested in the courtly arts of 18th Century France. The museum’s collection of Sèvres porcelain includes a number of pieces that were made for members of the Royal Bourbon Court at Versailles Palace outside of Paris. Portrait miniatures and the examples of works, especially snuffboxes and watches, are displayed in the Treasury, along with some exceptional 19th-
3.
Elizabeth Ann Seton
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Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, S. C. was the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. She established the first Catholic girls school in the nation in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where she founded the first American congregation of religious sisters. Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born on August 28,1774, the child of a socially prominent couple, Dr. Richard Bayley. The Bayley and Charlton families were among the earliest European settlers in the New York area and her fathers parents were French Huguenots and lived in New Rochelle, New York. Dr. Bayley later served as the first professor of anatomy at Columbia College and her mother, Catherine, died in 1777 when Elizabeth was three years old. This may have resulted from complications after the birth of the final child, also Catherine. Elizabeths father then married Charlotte Amelia Barclay, a member of the Jacobus James Roosevelt family, the couple had five children, but the marriage ended in separation. During the breakup, their stepmother rejected Elizabeth and her older sister and their father then traveled to London for further medical studies, so the sisters lived temporarily in New Rochelle with their paternal uncle, William Bayley, and his wife, Sarah Pell Bayley. Elizabeth experienced a period of darkness during this time, feeling the separation as loss of a second mother, in these journals, Elizabeth also showed her love for nature, poetry, and music, especially the piano. Entries frequently expressed her religious aspirations, as well as passages from her reading, showing her introspection. Seton was also fluent in French, a musician. On January 25,1794, at age 19, Elizabeth married William Magee Seton, aged 25, samuel Provoost, the first Episcopal bishop of New York, presided at their wedding. A loyalist, the senior William Seton was the last royal public notary for the city and he brought his sons William and James into the import-export mercantile firm, the William Seton Company, which became Seton, Maitland and Company in 1793. The younger William had visited important counting houses in Europe in 1788, was a friend of Filippo Filicchi, shortly after they married, Elizabeth and William moved into a fashionable residence on Wall Street. Socially prominent in New York society, the Setons belonged to Trinity Episcopal Church, near Broadway, a devout communicant, Elizabeth took the Rev. John Henry Hobart as her spiritual director. Along with her sister-in-law Rebecca Mary Seton, Elizabeth continued her former stepmothers social ministry—nursing the sick and dying among family, friends, and needy neighbors. Influenced by her father she became a member of The Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children. When the elder William Seton died, the Seton family fortunes began to decline in the economic climate preceding the War of 1812
4.
Nun
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A nun is a member of a religious community of women, typically one living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The term nun is applicable to Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Anglicans, Lutherans, Jains, Buddhists, Taoists, Hindus, Mother Teresas Missionaries of Charity, lives an active vocation of both prayer and service, often to the needy, ill, poor, and uneducated. All Buddhist traditions have nuns, although their status is different among Buddhist countries, fully ordained Buddhist nuns have more Patimokkha rules than the monks. The important vows are the same, however, as with monks, there is quite a lot of variation in nuns dress and social conventions between Buddhist cultures in Asia. Chinese nuns possess the full ordination, Tibetan nuns do not. In Thailand, a country never had a tradition of fully ordained nuns. However, some of them have played an important role in dhamma-practitioners community. There are in Thai Forest Tradition foremost nuns such as Mae Ji Kaew Sianglam, the founder of the Nunnery of Baan Huai Saai, who is believed by some to be enlightened as well as Upāsikā Kee Nanayon. At the beginning of the 21st century, some Buddhist women in Thailand have started to introduce the bhikkhuni sangha in their country as well, dhammananda Bhikkhuni, formerly the successful academic scholar Dr. Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, established a controversial monastery for the training of Buddhist nuns in Thailand. The relatively active roles of Taiwanese nuns were noted by some studies, researcher Charles Brewer Jones estimates that from 1952 to 1999, when the Buddhist Association of the ROC organized public ordination, female applicants have outnumbered males by about three to one. He adds, All my informants in the areas of Taipei and Sanhsia considered nuns at least as respectable as monks, in contrast, however, Shiu-kuen Tsung found in Taipei county that female clergy were viewed with some suspicion by society. She reports that while outsiders did not necessarily regard their vocation as unworthy of respect, wei-yi Cheng studied Luminary order in southern Taiwan. Based on studies of Luminary order, Cheng concluded that the order in Taiwan was still young and gave nuns more rooms of development. Gelongma ordination requires the presence of ten fully ordained people keeping exactly the same vows, because ten nuns are required to ordain a new one, the effort to establish the Dharmaguptaka bhikkhu tradition has taken a long time. It is permissible for a Tibetan nun to receive ordination from another living tradition. Based on this, Western nuns ordained in Tibetan tradition, like Thubten Chodron, the ordination of monks and nuns in Tibetan Buddhism distinguishes three stages, rabjung-ma, getshül-ma and gelong-ma. The clothes of the nuns in Tibet are basically the same as those of monks, hokke-ji in 747 was established by the consort of the Emperor. It took charge of provincial convents, performed ceremonies for the protection of the state, aristocratic Japanese women often became Buddhist nuns in the premodern period
5.
Louise de Marillac
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Saint Louise de Marillac, D. C. also Louise Le Gras was the co-founder, with Saint Vincent de Paul, of the Daughters of Charity. She is venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church and she was born out of wedlock on August 12,1591 near Le Meux, now in the department of Oise, in Picardy. Louis de Marillac, Lord of Ferrires, claimed her as his natural daughter yet not his legal heir, louis was a member of the prominent de Marillac family and was a widower at the time of Louise’s birth. Her uncle, Michel de Marillac, was a figure in the court of Queen Marie de Medici and, though Louise was not a member of the Queen’s court. Thus Louise grew up amid the affluent society of Paris, when her father married his new wife, Antoinette Le Camus, she refused to accept Louise as part of their family. Nevertheless, Louise was cared for and received an excellent education at the monastery of Poissy near Paris. Louise was schooled among the elite and was introduced to the arts. She remained at Poissy until her fathers death, when she was years old. Louise then stayed with a good, devout spinster, and from her, around the age of fifteen, Louise felt drawn to the cloistered life. She later made application to the Capuchin nuns in Paris but was refused admission and it is not clear if her refusal was for her continual poor health or other reasons, but her spiritual directors prophetic response to her application was that God had other plans for her. Devastated by this refusal, Louise was at a loss as to the step in her spiritual development. When she was 22, her family had convinced her that marriage was the best alternative and her uncle arranged for her to marry Antoine Le Gras, secretary to Queen Marie. Antoine was a young man who seemed destined for great accomplishments. Louise and Antoine were wed in the fashionable Church of St. Gervaise on February 5,1613, in October, the couple had their only child, Michel. Louise grew to love Antoine and was a mother to their son. Along with being devoted to her family, Louise was also active in ministry in her parish and she had a leading role in the Ladies of Charity, an organization of wealthy women dedicated to assisting those suffering from poverty and disease. Aided by her directors, the young Louise had entered into profound prayer in the tradition of the Rhenish-Flemish spiritualists or the abstract mystics and she had been initiated in the spirituality of Pierre de Bérulle and so entered into mysticism. The Incarnation became the centre upon which Louise’s theology and spirituality rested, Louise, like Duns Scotus, viewed the Incarnation as the moment in which men and women were saved
6.
Grey Nuns
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The congregation was founded when Marguerite dYouville and three of her friends formed a religious association to care for the poor. They rented a house in Montreal on 30 October 1738. At that time also took over the work of the bankrupt Frères Charon at the Hôpital Général de Montréal located outside the city walls. In 1755 the sisters cared those stricken during a smallpox epidemic, as the sisters were not cloistered, they could go out to visit the sick. Those assisted included the First Nations people in Oka, who were among the benefactors who helped rebuild the Hospital after a fire in 1765. In 1855, the Grey Nuns were called to Toledo, Ohio, Marguerite dYouville and her colleagues adopted the particular black and beige dress of their religious institute in 1755, despite a lack of grey colour, they kept the nickname. When a Grey Nun worked as a nurse in a hospital and they wore a bonnet instead of a veil, as that was more practical for everyday work. This rule forms the basis of the present constitution, which was approved by Pope Leo XIII on 30 July 1880, besides the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the sisters pledge themselves to devote their lives to the service of suffering humanity. They became a pontifical congregation in 1896. In response to increased industrialization of the area, in 1864 they founded the workhouse of Saint Geneviève to procure work for the women when they are unable to find any on the outside. The workhouse produced woollen fabric and soap, and provided employment for ten women, fifteen, girls, one man, in 1888 the sisters founded the first hospital in Lewiston, Maine. They found DYouville College in Buffalo, New York, in 1966, the mother house moved to Yardley, Pennsylvania. The sisters serve in a variety of ministries in the East Coast states New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts as well as in Georgia, the Grey Nuns Hospital building built in 1765 in Montreal was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1973 to commemorate the Grey Nuns. In 2011, Grey Nuns Motherhouse, the motherhouse of the Grey Nuns in Montreal. They now operate shelters for battered women, shelters for women in need, clothing and food dispensaries, centres for the disabled, many of these health care institutions were founded by missionary nuns sent out from convents in Quebec and Ontario. Grey Nuns may work with the incarcerated, some chapters are also dedicated to peace and justice, at least one chapter, the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, has declared its properties a nuclear-free zone. They no longer wear their habit and now wear street clothes. In 1993 it was estimated there were just under 3,000 Grey Nuns in Canada, mainly in Quebec
7.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
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Ireland
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Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, in 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland, the islands geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild, thick woodlands covered the island until the Middle Ages. As of 2013, the amount of land that is wooded in Ireland is about 11% of the total, there are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is moderate and classified as oceanic. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, however, summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant, the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE, the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland, however, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, with the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s and this subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, an indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music. The culture of the island shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing. The name Ireland derives from Old Irish Eriu and this in turn derives from Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, which is also the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning fat, prosperous, during the last glacial period, and up until about 9000 years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice, most of the time
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Christian monasticism
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Christian monasticism is the devotional practice of individuals who live ascetic and typically cloistered lives that are dedicated to Christian worship. It has come to be regulated by rules and, in modern times. Those living the life are known by the generic terms monks. In modern English, they are known by the gender-neutral term monastics. The word monk originated from the Greek monachos monk, itself from monos meaning alone, monks did not live in monasteries at first, rather, they began by living alone, as the word monos might suggest. As more people took on the lives of monks, living alone in the wilderness, they started to come together, quickly, the monks formed communities to further their ability to observe an ascetic life. According to Christianity historian Robert Louis Wilken, By creating a social structure within the Church they laid the foundations for one of the most enduring Christian institutions. Monastics generally dwell in a monastery, whether they live there in community, the basic idea of monasticism in all its varieties is seclusion or withdrawal from the world or society. Monastic life is distinct from the religious orders such as the friars, canons regular, clerks regular, the latter have essentially some special work or aim, such as preaching, teaching, liberating captives, etc. which occupies a large place in their activities. While monks have undertaken labours of the most varied character, in case this work is extrinsic to the essence of the monastic state. Both ways of living out the Christian life are regulated by the church law of those Christian denominations that recognize it. Christian monastic life does not always involve communal living with like-minded Christians, Christian monasticism has varied greatly in its external forms, but, broadly speaking, it has two main types the eremitical or secluded, the cenobitical or city life. St. Anthony the Abbot may be called the founder of the first, the monastic life is based on Jesuss amen to be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. This ideal, also called the state of perfection, can be seen, for example, in the Philokalia and their manner of self-renunciation has three elements corresponding to the three evangelical counsels, poverty, chastity and obedience. Monks and friars are two distinct roles, in the thirteenth century … new orders of friars were founded to teach the Christian faith, because monasteries had declined. First Century groups such as the Essenes and the Therapeutae followed lifestyles that could be seen as precursors to Christian monasticism, the Carmelites find inspiration in the old testament prophet Elijah. From the earliest times within the Christian Church, there were probably individual hermits who lived a life in isolation in imitation of Jesuss 40 days in the desert and they have left no confirmed archaeological traces and only hints in the written record. Communities of virgins who had consecrated themselves to Christ are found at least as far back as the 2nd century, eremitic monasticism, or solitary monasticism, is characterized by a complete withdrawal from society
10.
Vincent de Paul
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St. Vincent de Paul was a French Roman Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving the poor. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion and he was renowned for his compassion, humility and generosity and is known as the Great Apostle of Charity. Vincent was born in 1581 in the village of Pouy in Gascony, in the Province of Guyenne and Gascony, there was in the vicinity, a stream named the Paul and it is believed that this might have been the derivation of the family name. He wrote the name as one word – Depaul, possibly to avoid the inference that he was of noble birth and he had three brothers – Jean, Bernard and Gayon, and two sisters – Marie and Marie-Claudine. At an early age, he showed a talent for reading and writing but during his childhood, at 15, his father sent him to seminary, managing to pay for it by selling the family’s oxen. Vincents interest in the priesthood at that time was largely with the intent to establish a career and obtain a benefice, with which he could retire early. For two years, Vincent received his education at a college in Dax, France adjoining a monastery of the Friars Minor where he, in 1597, he began his studies in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Toulouse. The atmosphere at the university was anything but pious or conducive to spiritual contemplation, fights broke out between various factions of students which escalated into many armed battles. During the course of the unrest, an official was murdered by two students, nevertheless, he continued his studies and was finally able to help pay for his education by tutoring others. He was ordained on 23 September 1600 at the age of nineteen in Château-lÉvêque, rather than respond to a lawsuit in which he would probably not have prevailed, he resigned from the position and continued his studies. On 12 October 1604 he received his Bachelor of Theology from the University of Toulouse, later he received a Licentiate in Canon Law from the University of Paris. De Paul was auctioned off as a slave to the highest bidder and his first master was a fisherman, but Vincent was unsuitable for this line of work due to sea-sickness and was soon sold. His next master was a physician, alchemist and inventor. He became fascinated by his arts and was taught how to prepare, the fame of Vincents master became so great that it attracted the attention of men who summoned him to Istanbul. During the passage, the old man died and Vincent was sold once again and his new master was a former priest and Franciscan from Nice, named Guillaume Gautier. He had converted to Islam in order to gain his freedom from slavery and was living in the mountains with three wives, the second wife, a Muslim by birth, was drawn to and visited Vincent in the fields to question him about his faith. She became convinced that his faith was true and admonished her husband for renouncing his Christianity and her husband became remorseful and decided to escape back to France with his slave. They had to wait ten months, but finally they secretly boarded a boat and crossed the Mediterranean
11.
Sisters of Charity of New York
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The Sisters followed the Vincentian practice of taking temporary religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, renewing these annually. This practice lasted until 1938, when the congregation adopted the standard practice of professing lifetime vows. In 1814, Mother Seton sent three sisters to care for orphans after receiving a request from clergy in Philadelphia, in 1817, three Sisters were sent to New York City to establish an orphanage. The Sisters quickly took on the job of establishing Catholic orphanages in a city overrun with abandoned, orphaned or neglected children, Mother Seton had established one of the first Catholic elementary schools in Emmitsburg. With this background, the Sisters also began to establish or staff existing parish schools, particularly in poor and immigrant neighborhoods, some of the earliest sustained social service institutions and health care facilities in New York City were started by the sisters. The motherhouse at Emmitsburg negotiated for affiliation with the Daughters of Charity in France, the measure threatened at that period the very existence of the New York orphanage. In 1846, the Sisters in New York incorporated as an entity from the Sisters of Charity still based in Maryland. Archbishop John Hughes sister, Mary Angela Hughes, was by then superior of the Sisters in New York and they became the Sisters of Charity of New York. This was not unusual, in several other groups of Sisters founded by Seton established themselves as independent diocesan entities once their communities reached maturity. Here, in 1847, the Academy of Mount Saint Vincent had its foundation, in the late 1850s the sisters bought the Edwin Forrest estate called Font Hill and the Motherhouse and academy relocated to the Riverdale section of the Bronx. In 1849 four sisters were sent from Mount Saint Vincent to Halifax, the Sisters of Charity of Halifax became an independent congregation in 1849. In 1890 the Sisters of Saint Martha of Antigonish evolved from the Halifax congregation as an order devoted to housekeeping and nursing duties at St. Francis University. In 1856, under Mother Mary Xavier Mehegan, a community was formed of the sisters then labouring in the Diocese of Newark. As immigrants arrived in poverty during the 19th century, the became known for accepting newborns at the doorsteps of the convent. New York Foundling continues its work today, and is noted for its work with babies and young children infected with HIV, the cholera epidemic of 1849 impelled the Sisters to open St. Vincents Hospital in Manhattan, the first Catholic hospital in New York City. In 1862 the sisters nursed Civil War wounded in St. Joseph’s Military Hospital, the Sisters were also the key congregation in the establishment of New Yorks parochial school system, staffing more schools than any other single order of women. St Joseph by-the-Sea High School on Staten Island was also founded by them, now co-ed, it is still staffed by a number of Sisters of Charity. In 1958 the Congregation opened the Convent of Mary the Queen in Yonkers as a residence for Senior Sisters
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