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CHARITY
sisters were to be recalled to Emmitsburg from New
York in July of the same year. This and other cir-
cumstances proved to the archbishop the necessity
of establishing a separate community in New York,
to supply the needs of the diocese. In 1846, there-
fore, a proposition to that effect was made to the
Emmitsburg sisters, and the matter was amicably
arranged. Those who wished to continue in New
York were dispensed from the vow of obedience to
their former superior, and of the forty-five sisters then
in the diocese, thirty-five remained (8 Dec, 1846).
Sister Elizabeth Boyle- became in December, 1846, the first superior of the new community. The no- vitiate for the New York community was at once opened at St. James's Academy, 35 East Broadway. In the following year it was removed to the new mother-house on an estate purchased at McGown's Pass, situated within the limits of the present Central Park. Here, in 1847, the Academy of Mount Saint Vincent had its foundation. In 1849 the affiliation of the Emmitsburg Sisters with the community in France took place and in the same year a band of sisters was sent from Mount Saint Vincent to Halifax, Nova Scotia. The mission was most successful and in 1856 was erected into a separate company. In 1S59, under Mother Xavier, a local community was formed of the sisters then labouring in the Diocese of Newark. Meanwhile in 1857 the "Old Mount" hav- ing been absorbed in Central Park, a new "Mount" rose on the east bank of the Hudson just below Yon- kers, fourteen miles from the heart of the city. Here to-day are to be found the mother-house of the com- munity, the novitiate with a finely equipped training- school, and the Academy of Mount Saint Vincent.
The superiors succeeding Mother Elizabeth Boyle have been, Mother Jerome Ely, for over fifty years a prominent factor in New York's Catholic educational and charitable work; Mother Angela Hughes, sister of Archbishop Hughes; Mother Regina Lawless, Mother Ambrosia Sweeney, Mother Rosina Wight- man, Mother Mary Rose Dolan, Mother Melita Mc- Clancy and Mother Josepha Cullen. Some idea of the growth in numbers of this community and of the im- portance of its present activities may be learned from the following statistics for 1908. It counts about 1400 members who conduct missions in the Dioceses of Albany, Brooklyn, and Harrisburg as well as in the Archdiocese of New York. These establishments comprise 20 academies; 73 parochial schools with about 50,000 pupils; 5 asylums with 1800 orphans; 6 high schools approved by the State; several homes containing 600 children; 11 hospitals in which 12,000 patients were treated during the year; 1 home ac- commodating 270 aged poor; an industrial school and a protectory with 1620 girls; a foundling asylum with 3340 children and 554 needy and homeless mothers; 2 small day nurseries caring for 100 little ones, and a retreat for the insane with 150 patients.
The superior general is the Archbishop of New York, and the community is governed by a council (•(insisting of the mother superior and her three as- sistants, all residing at the mother-house, to which the seventy-four missions are subordinate. These sisters retain the black cap and religious dress adopted by Mother Seton when she founded the American Sisters of Charity. They follow the Rule of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul with some slight modifications. On 20 June, 1847, the Holy See extended to them all the privileges, Indul- gences, and other spiritual graces already granted to the community of the Sisters of Charity at Kmmitsburg.
White, Lift of Mrs. Eliza A. Seton (Baltimore, 1852); Bbusowb, .-l Famous Convent School (New York, 1897); A. M. M <. ; Hmilr (New York, lS«.):ti; Shea.
of Ih. Catholic Church in the t'nile,! Slates (New York. 1890 ; I'l.vw, The Catholic Church in New Jersey (Morristown, 1904 ; Catholi, Director]/, 1908
Maky Ambrose Dunphy.
Sisters op Charity of St. Elizabeth (mother-
house at Convent Station, near Morristown, New Jer-
sey), a community founded at Newark, in 1S59, by
Mother Mary Xavier Mehegan, who for twelve years
previously had been a member of the Sisters of Char-
ity of St". Vincent de Paul in New York. In 1858
Bishop Bayley, of Newark, applied to the superior at
Mount Saint Vincent's, New York, for sisters to form
a separate mother-house in his diocese. Sister Mary
Xavier, who was in charge of St. Mary's, Newark,
was at his request appointed superior of the new
foundation, with Sister Mary Catherine Nevin assist-
ant. The habit and the constitutions of the Sisters
of Charity in New York were retained. On 29 Sep-
tember, 1859, the new community was formally
opened in St. Mary's, Newark, the first superior
general being the Reverend Bernard J. McQuaid,
later Bishop of Rochester, New York. In less than a
year the first Catholic hospital in New Jersey was
opened at St. Mary's, Newark. On 2 July, 1860, the
mother-house was removed to the old Chegaray man-
sion at Madison, which had recently been vacated by
Seton Hall College. An academy was opened the
same year and named St. Elizabeth's, in honour of
Mother Elizabeth Seton, the foundress of the Ameri-
can Sisters of Charity. Bishop Bayley had strongly
advocated a change in the head-dress of the sisters.
This, however, was not carried into effect until 1874,
when the black cap adopted by Mother Seton was
replaced by a white one with a black veil. To ac-
commodate the rapidly growing community the
mother-house and academy were removed in 1880 to
Convent Station, near Morristown.
The principal work of the sisters is teaching, but they also labour for the poor and the sick in various charitable institutions. According to the report for 1907, there are 1073 of these sisters in the Dioceses of Newark, Trenton, and Hartford, and the Archdioceses of New York and Boston. They have one college, six academies, one preparatory school for small boys, sixty-seven parochial schools with 40,100 pupils, five orphanages, five hospitals, one home for incurables, one home for the aged, one foundling asylum, and two day nurseries. Their principal educational cen- tre is at Convent Station, where there are schools of primary, grammar, high school, and college grades. The college course was founded in 1899 for the higher education of women. Students are admitted by examination or by certificates from approved academies or high schools. The courses of study are partially elective and lead to the degrees of B. A. and M. A. In 1907 the college library contained 20,000 volumes. The college has no endowment. In con- nexion with the college department is a School of Pedagogy requiring two years of college work for ad- mission. The High School, the School of Pedagogy, and the College are registered by the New Jersey State Board of Education and by the Regents of the University of the State of New York. At the mother- house of the community is a normal training school for the young sisters.
Flynn, The Catholic Church in New Jersey (Morristown, 1904); Catholic Directory (1908).
Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth.
Sisters of Charity (St. John, New Brunswick). founded in 1854 by Bishop, subsequently Archbishop. Connolly. Two years before this the bishop had sent Miss Honors Conway (Mother Mary Vincent) to the novitiate of the Sisters of Charity in New York to prepare for the foundation of a local community. The cholera epidemic of 1854 left many orphans in St. John and other parts of the province. When Miss Conway had finished her novitiate she returned to St. John and in a short time was joined by four other young ladies for whom Bishop Connolly drew up rules, and thus the congregation began. The care of the orphans and aged poor, and the Christian educa-
