Charity, Sisters of, (St. John, New Brunswick)

Founded in 1854 by Bishop, subsequently Archbishop, Connolly. Two years before this the bishop had sent Miss Honora 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 the orphans and aged poor, and the Christian education of the young is the work undertaken and successfully carried out by these sisters. In St. John they have an orphanage for girls, a home for the aged, and at Silver Falls a Boys' Industrial School. The sisters teach in the public schools, and the entire education of the Catholic girls of the city is in their hands. From their High School the pupils enter the Provincial Normal School and the New Brunswick University. The congregation has houses and schools in many places in the diocese and also takes charge of an orphanage in the Diocese of Prince Albert. The mother-house and novitiate of this congregation are at St. John, N.B.