JOSEPH
514
JOSEPH
they now number 175, in charge of 23 schools in the
Archdiocese of Baltimore and the Dioceses of Pitts-
burg, Cleveland, and Columbus, with an attendance of
6075; they also conduct a hospital and 2 boarding-
schools. In 1901 the mother-house was transferred
to Baden, Pennsylvania.
Rochester. — In 1864 four Sisters of St. Joseph from Buffalo opened an asylum for orphan boys at Roches- ter. Three years later the Diocese of Buffalo was divided and that of Rochester created, and the follow- ing year, 1868, the Rochester community dissolved its affiliation with the Buffalo mother-house and opened its own novitiate and mother-house at St. Mary's Boys' Orphan Asylum, later transferred to the Nazareth Academy, Rochester. The number of in- stitutions now directed by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester has risen to 50 (1910) : 5 private educational institutions, including a conservatory of music and art; 5 charitable institutions, including 3 orphan asylums, a hospital, and a home for the aged ; anfl 40 parochial schools, including one high .school. The community numbers 430 members, in charge of 15,000 children.
St. Augustine. — In 1866 eight Sisters of St. Joseph from the mother-house at Le Puy were sent to St. Augustine, at the request of Bishop Verot, to teach the coloured people, recently liberated by the Civil War. In 1880 a novitiate was established, and about the same time, owing to the departure of the Sisters of Mercy from the city, the training of the impover- ished whites also devolved on the new community. In 1889 connexion with the mother-house in France was severed, and many of the French sisters returned to their native land. The sisters now number about 105, in charge of 6 academies, 14 day-schools, and 1 orphanage. They have under their charge about 1438 white and 240 coloured children, and about 35 orphans. The mother-house of the Florida missions is at St. Augustine.
St. Louis. — In the year 1834 the Right Rev. Joseph Rosati of St. Louis, Missouri, called at the mother- house of the Sisters of St. Joseph at Lyons and asked Mother St. John Fontbonne, the superior, to send a colony of her daughters to America. The financial aid necessary was obtained through the Countess de la Roche Jacquelin. Arrangements were soon per- fected, and on 17 January, 1836, six sisters sailed from Havre and, after a perilous voyage of forty-nine days, reached New Orleans, where they were met by the Bishop of St. Louis and Father Timon, afterwards Bishop of Buffalo. They arrived at St. Louis on 25 March. The house, a small log cabin, which was to be the central or mother-house of the future congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, was located at Carondelet, a small town six miles south of St. Louis. At the time the sisters arrived at St. Louis, this humble house was occupied by the Sisters of Charity, who there eared for a few orplians soon after transferred to a new building. While waiting for their home, they received a call from Cahokia, Illinois, where a zealous Vincentian missionary desired the help of the sisters in his labours among the French and Creole popu- lation of that section. Three religious volunteered for this mission. The people among whom the sisters la- boured in St. Louis were poor and rude, and apparently destitute of any taste for either religion or education. These obstacles seemed but to increase the zeal of the sisters, and by degrees postulants were received, parochial .schools and asylums opened, and new works begun in various parts of the diocese. As early as 1847 foundations were made in other sections of the United States. In 1837 the first American member of the order, Ann Eliza Dillon, entered the novitiate, proving of great advantage to the struggling community, with lier fluency in French and English. She died, how- ever, four years later. The community increasing in proportion to its more extended field of labour, a com-
modious building was erected to answer the double
purpose of novitiate and academy, the latter being
incorporated in 1853 under the laws of the State of
Missouri.
Because of the rapid growth of the institute and the increasing demand for sisters from all parts of the United States, the superiors of the community were by 1860 forced to consider means best adapted to givB stability and uniformity to the growing congregation. A general chapter was convoked in May, 1860, to which representatives from every house of the congre- gation in America were called. At tliis meeting a plan for uniting all the communities under a general government was discussed and accepted by the sis- ters and afterwards by many of the bishops in whose dioceses the sisters were engaged. This plan, together with the constitutions, revised so as to meet the re- quirements of the new condition, was presented to the Holy See for approval. In September, 1863, Pope Pius IX issued the letter of commendation of the in- stitute and its works, holding the constitutions for examination and revision by the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars. The first decree of appro- bation was granted 7 June, 1S67, and ten years later, 16 May, 1877, a decree approving the institute and constitutions was issued by the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars. On 31 July, 1877, Pius IX, by special Brief, confirmed the institute and constitu- tions of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Thus, with the sanction of the Church came the unification of communities in various dioceses with the mother- house at Carondelet, now in the city of St. Louis.
The congregation is at present (1910) divided into four provinces: St. Louis, Missouri; St. Paul, Minne- sota; Troy, New York; Los Angeles, California. The St. Louis province comprises the houses of the con- gregation in the Archdioceses of St. Louis and Chicago and the Dioceses of St. Joseph, Kansas City, Indian- apolis, Peoria, Belleville, Alton, Denver, Marquette, Green Bay, Mobile, and Oklahoma. The province of St. Paul includes the houses in the Archdiocese of St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Dioceses of Winona and Far- go, North Dakota. The province of Troy is formed of the houses established in the Dioceses of Albany and Syracuse, New York. The province of Los Angeles comprises the houses of the Archdiocese of San Fran- cisco, the Dioceses of Tucson, Arizona, and Los An- geles, California. The superior general and four gen- eral councillors, elected every six years by the whole congregation, form the general governing body, as- sisted by a superior provincial and four provincial councillors in each province. The provincial officers are appointed by the general officers every three years, as also are the local superiors of all the provinces. In each provincial house, as in the mother-house, a novitiate is estabhshed. The term of postulantsliip extends from three to six months, the terra of novi- tiate two years, after wliioh annual vows are taken for a period of five years, when perpetual vows are taken. All are received on the same footing, all enjoy the same privileges, and all are subject to the same obedi- ence which assigns duties according to ability, talent, and aptitude. Although an intercliange of members of the various provinces is allowed and made use of for general or particular needs, the autonomy of each prov- ince is safeguarded. The constitutions, while estab- lishing on a solid basis the idea of a general govern- ment, allow no small share of local initiative and care- fully provide for local needs. In this way too much centralization or peril to establishments working in accorilance with local and special exigencies is fully guarded against. The congregation now (1910) num- bers 4 provinces, with 1802 sisters, in charge of 125 educational institutions, including colleges, academies, conservatories of music and art, and parocliial schools, with an attendance of 40,848; 17 charitable educa- tional institutions, including orphan asylums, Indian,
