On this day in 1866, the first Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word arrived in the United States. They came fron the Monastery of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament in Lyons, France, and were brought to America by Galveston Bishop Claude Marie Dubuis. At the time his diocese comprised the entire state of Texas. They began by administering St Mary’s Hospital in Galveston. Three years after their arrival they started the first hospital in San Antonio. Sister St. Madeleine was appointed superior and Sister St. Pierre her assistant. (The two are seen above.) This facility served as the motherhouse for the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio. By 1891 the sisters’ health care establishments included eleven hospitals in Texas, New Mexico, Iowa, and Missouri and a home for the aged in Monterrey. In 1875, the sisters opened their first school in connection with an orphanage in San Antonio. Incarnate Word University, started in 1881, is the largest Catholic university in Texas. By the 1990’s, the Sisters were ministering not only throughout Texas but in Missouri, Illinois, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arizona, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Peru. There were 365 Sisters of Charity in the United States in 1994.
(From the Handbook of Texas Online)
(From the Handbook of Texas Online)