JOSEPH
516
JOSEPH
native orphanage, native day-school, dispensary, and
a novitiate for natives. In other parts of India the
sisters conduct a primary school, a boarding- and day-
school, an intermediate school for Hindus, with an
attendance of 200, a home for Rajpoot widows and
another home for widows, a workshop for widows and
orphans, and 4 orphanages. At Palconda are two
sisters who serve as catechists and sacristans. In all
these missions the primary, secondary, and interme-
diate schools are under the Government. In some the
orplianages are aided or wholly supported by the
Government. Everywhere remedies are given to the
sick natives, and the work of infant baptism of natives
is carried on. When natives enter the congregation,
the noviceship is made apart from the Europeans, but
they are treated in every way as members of the com-
munity. The work of the native novitiate is only in its
infancy, and it is hoped that the native sisters will in
the future be most useful with the native population.
The Indian foundation was made in 1849.
Francesca M. Steele.
Sisters of St. Joseph ofBourg. — In 1819 a foundation from the mother-house of the Sisters of St. Joseph at Lyons was made at Belley; a novitiate was opened, and houses were established in other parts of the dio- cese. In 1823, at the desire of the Bishop of Belley, the sisters of the diocese were constituted an indepen- dent diocesan congregation. The mother-house was transferred to Ain, in 1825, whence houses were founded at Ferney, Gap, Grenoble, Bordeaux, and elsewhere. In 1828 and again in 1853, Bishop Devie obtained the approval of the French Government for the new congregation. By 186.5 the number of mem- bers had reached 1700, and the congregation was es- tablished throughout France, the principal academies being at Bourg, Paris, Boulogne-sur-Seine, and Mar- seilles.
In 1854 the sisters were sent from Bourg to estab- lish a house at Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, in the Dio- cese of Natchez. In 1863 a novitiate was opened at New Orleans, and later one was established at Cedar Point, Hamilton County, Ohio. The sisters are now in charge of 15 educational institutions, including several academies, as well as coloured and Indian schools, a home for working girls, and an industrial school, with about 1800 children and young women under their care.
The Sisters of St. Joseph were established at Su- perior, Wis., in 1907 by seven sisters from Cincinnati. They now number 21, in charge of 3 schools, with an attendance of 225.
In 1904 a colony of French sisters was sent out from Bourg, and schools have since been opened among the French Canadians in Minnesota and Wisconsin. In the Diocese of Duluth they have 2 academies with an attendance of 220.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambery. — .\fter the recon- struction of the congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph at Lyons, by Mother St. John Fontbonne, a colony of sisters was sent to Chambery, in Savoy, in 1812. The tide of anarchy and revolution had wrought awful havoc in France, and the education of youth, especially the children of the working classes, was the special work devolving on the Sisters of St. Joseph. The works of charity, the care of the sick in hospitals, of the aged and orphans, and the visitation of the sick in their homes, were also carried on as prior to the Revolution. The original habit was somewhat modi- fied and became about what it is now in the French hou.ses, consisting of a black dress, veil and underveil, woollen cincture, wooden beads strung on brass and fastened to the cincture, a brass crucifix on the breast, and a linen coronet, front, and gimp. In 1843 Mother St. John Marcoux, .superior since 1812, resigned her office, which was assumed by Mother F<?licit^, under whom the congregation continued its extraordinary
development. More than eighty houses rose beneath
her hand, and when, in 1861, a state normal .school was
opened at Rumilly, Savoy, it was placed in charge of
the sisters.
Meanwhile the Chambery sisters had been con- stituted a diocesan congregation, but as years went on a stronger administration became necessary. The rule was therefore revised to meet the requirements of a generalate, and papal approbation was granted in 1874 by rescript of Pius IX. Under the new form of government the congregation is subject to a superior general, whose term of office is six years, and is divided into provinces, each possessing a novitiate. The nov- ices, after two years' probation, make annual vows for two years, after which they bind themselves by perpetual vows. The rule is based on that of St. Augustine.
The province of Denmark, whither the sisters were sent in 1856, has its seat at Copenhagen, and now numbers 400 members, in charge of flourishing paro- chial and private schools and a large hospital in the capital, with schools, orphan asylums, and hospitals, on a smaller scale, scattered all over the kingdom. From Copenhagen sisters were sent to Iceland, where they have a school, give religious instruction, visit the sick, and, during the proper seasons, repair to the fisheries on the coast to nurse sick sailors. In 1901 this province opened a house at Brussels, where the sisters have a large public school under the Govern- ment. The Brazilian province, founded in 1859, has several flourishing academies, besides day-schools for the upper classes, schools for negroes, hospitals, or- phanages and foundling asylums, and one home for lepers. The sisters number about 250, under the pro- vincial house at Itu. In 1862 sisters were sent to establish a school at Stockholm, and in 1876 to Gothen- burg. The Norwegian province, dating from 1865, with seat at Christiania, has over 180 sisters. The province of Russia, founded in 1872, with novitiate at Tarnapol, Galicia, outside the frontier, has establish- ments at St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Odessa: two large academies, a day-school, an orphan asylum, a hospital, a home for the aged, etc. In 1876 the Sis- ters of St. Joseph of Rome, founded from Turin in 1839, were annexed to the Chamb(^ry branch; the province now (1910) comprises 15 houses, mainly educational institutions. In Rome itself the sisters have an academy, with 100 pupils, 2 day-schools, and one poor school.
At the request of the Congregation of Propaganda, and with the approval of the Bishop of Springfield, five sisters were sent, in 1885, to Lee, Massachusetts, for work in the parochial schools. As their activities developed chiefly in the Diocese of Hartford, the novitiate, which had been temporarily established at Lee, was, in 1898, transferred to Hartford, Connecti- cut. The number of religious, then 44, has now (1910) reached 155, in charge of 9 schools attended by 2100 pupils, 2 hospitals, with an annual average of 4200 patients. The sisters also instruct about 1000 children in Christian doctrine, and have the domestic care of the Hartford seminary and La Salette College in the same city.
In 1902 many French houses of the order were closed by the Government, in consequence of which a large number of sisters left for the foreign missions, chiefly Denmark and Russia. The province of Savoy, previously in charge of 52 establishments, has now hut 14. The entire generalate comprises 1670 mem- bers.
Sisters of St. Joseph of St-Vallier.— Jn 168^, at the request of Mgr Jean - Baptiste de la Croix Chevrij^re, Count of St-Vallier, later Bishop of Quebec, two Sis- ters of St. Joseph from Le Puy took charge of a hospi- tal recently founded by him at St^Vallier (Drome). As the new community grew in nvunbers, it also de- voted its attention to the education of youth. In
