Is St. Joseph's Church in Fall River still an active church?

St. Joseph's Church is a historic church located at 1355 North Main Street in Fall River, Massachusetts. It was built in 1880 in the Gothic Revival style and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. It was designed by notable church architect Patrick C. Keely.

St. Joseph's Church (Fall River, Massachusetts)

The church's pipe organ was built in 1883 by W.K. Adams & Sons in Providence RI. It is one of the largest built by them. It was once run by water and then by bellows.

The parish was founded in 1873 to accommodate the growing numbers of Catholics who had settled in the northern section of the city in the 1870s to work in the cotton mills, including the Border City, Narragansett, Mechanics, Sagamore Mills. The current Pastor is Rev. John Raposo.

Reverend Thomas F. Hendricken, Bishop of the Diocese of Providence, R.I. The first pastor, and consequently the founder of the parish, was Reverend william H. Bric, who had been located in Harrisville and Slatersville, R.I. and who took possession here in the early part of April of that year. He made his abode in what was then known as the Leland house, located on North Main street at a point just north of the present President Avenue. There it was that the first mass was celebrated for the scattering flock that comprised the congregation, on Low Sunday, April 20, l873. A temporary edifice was gotten under way in short order at a spot close by what is now known as Vestal street, and here the faithful Catholics of the northern section of the city worshipped for a period of between three and four years.

With that keenness and sagacity which were marked characteristics of the man, Reverend Father Bric began to look about for a site that he considered would be an ideal one, taking into consideration the future growth of the parish, and he eventually purchased a large tract of land at the corner of North Main and Weetamoe streets. To the rear portion of this lot was then removed the small building that was being used for the offering up of the Holy Mass, and to it were added two wings and a small choir loft, all of which is still preserved in the minds and memories of the few, very few, survivors of that band of loyal religious followers of the beloved founder of the parish who encouraged him in his zealous efforts by kindly words and supported him in his every move by generous financial backing.

Realizing that his congregation was growing by leaps and bounds, and with the added knowledge that the seating capacity was becoming totally inadequate to accommodate the adults and children at the Sunday Masses, Reverend Father Bric confided to his people that the time was opportune for them to join with him in the erection of a temple to the glory of God that would ever be a fitting monument and memorial to themselves as among the pioneers of Catholicity in this great industrial city.

Architect Patrick H. Keeley of Brooklyn, was entrusted with the working out of the details, and on Monday, August 5, 1880, ground was broken on the North Main Street side of the lot, the first shovel of dirt being raised by the pastor in the presence of a goodly number of men and women who exhibited a pardonable pride in the splendid progress that the young parish was making. The contract called for an excavation nine feet deep, the work to be finished within four weeks. And it was so done. The building of the foundation walls was pushed ahead with all due speed, and Sunday, August 15, 1880, was decided upon as the date of the laying of the corner stone.

Then came the first dark days in the comparatively brief history of this church. Reverend Father Bric, ailing for several months with heart trouble, aggravated undoubtedly by worries in connection with the great task in hand, succumbed on Saturday, August 7, a short measure of eight days prior to the occasion that was to have been one of the proudest and happiest epochs in his priestly life. His funeral on the following Wednesday, August 11, was marked by a Solemn High Mass of Requiem, with all the pomp and ceremonial that the church ritual calls for upon the passing away of one of its anointed sons, his body being subsequently placed in a tomb specially constructed in the basement of the church at a point under the altar. It was without question the greatest outpouring of people of all faiths that the northern section had ever witnessed, for the deceased had a citywide reputation for public service altogether apart from his pastoral duties and responsibilities.

The laying of the cornerstone was carried out as per program in the presence of a great concourse of spectators. A beautiful, bright day, as well befitting such a glorious affair, the heat of the afternoon was such that it was necessary at times to shield the church dignitaries from the piercing rays of the sun. Right Reverend Bishop Hendricken, in full canonical robes, and surrounded by a dozen clergymen including all of those located in Fall River and a few from outside the city, first read the prayers for the dead over the grave of the late pastor and then proceeded to the southwest corner of the building, where the exercises proper followed. Several of the church sodalities were grouped about the platform, their banners draped in deepest mourning. The handsome and massive piece of granite, with the numerals 1880 cut into it, marking the date of erection, was swung into place at the appointed moment. Under the direction of the contractors, Messrs. Hogan & Lord, the Right Reverend Ordinary using in laying the mortar a solid silver trowel that was then awarded to the late James Hayden of Durfee Street.

Within the corner stone was deposited a copper box in which were copies of recent date of the Fall River Herald and News, Boston Herald and Pilot, New York Herald, Providence Journal and Freeman's journal; current coins of the United States; portrait of Reverend Father Bric and this inscription in Latin: "In the year of our Lord l880: Leo XIII, Pope; Right Reverend Thomas P. Hendricken of Providence, R.I., Bishop: Rutherford B. Hayes, President; John D. Long, Governor; William S. Greene, Mayor; this stone was placed by His Lordship, the present Bishop." The latter then delivered the sermon of the day, prefacing it with a tribute to the lamented Reverend Father Bric and his work in the Bowenville parish. He concluded his discourse with these prophetic words: "I have the deepest possible interest in the progress of religion here in this rapidly-growing city. Eight or nine years ago I found it with but two Catholic churches. Now we have not got enough with five or six, and what the city is to become God only knows!"

Words truly spoken, indeed. What the City of Fall River was destined to become, God alone knew then. But with a retrospective glance over the dim and musty pages of local church history covering more than four decades of time, what do we find today as matters of common knowledge of which Catholics one and all may well feel proud? Fall River, an Episcopal See, under the wise guidance of Right Reverend Daniel F. Feehan as the successor of the late lamented Right Reverend William Stang, its first Bishop; 23 Catholic churches where, in addition to the English tongue, the worshippers are representatives of the French, Portuguese, Polish, Italian, and Syrian nationalities; a city with a population of rising 128,000 and more than 80 per cent of them Catholics; a Catholic, Honorable John W. Cummings as President of the Fall River Bar Association and a Past President of the Massachusetts State Bar Association; A Catholic, Honorable Hugo A. Dubuque, as a Justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts; a Catholic, Honorable Edward F. Hanify as Justice of the Second District Court of Bristol County; A Catholic, Honorable Edmond P. Talbot, as Mayor of the city; a Catholic, Hector L.Belisle, as Superintendent of Schools; a Catholic, Martin Feeney, as Chief of Police; a Catholic, Jeremiah F. Sullivan, as Chief of the Fire Department; Catholics as heads of several of the other important bureaus in City Hall; two Catholics, Honorable John T. Coughlin and Honorable Thomas F. Higgins, former mayors and present members of this parish; a Catholic, and likewise a parishioner, Michael J. Orpen, Esquire, as clerk of the Second District Court of Bristol, and a Catholic, Honorable Frank M. Silvia, as one of its Special Justices; Catholic Church, fraternal and charitable organizations seemingly without number; Catholic laymen as leaders in the industrial, business and social pursuits of the municipality. Fall River has certainly taken its place in the sun as one of the bright sparkling centers of Catholicity in these United States!

Following the decease of Reverend Father Bric, the then curate, Reverend John H. Gormley, was "locum Tenens" until November 1, l880, when selection was made of Reverend Andrew J. Brady. He came here from Sandwich, on Cape Cod, and entered into the work of the parish with the one thought of carrying to fruition the well-laid plans of his predecessor. Reverend Father Brady, was not in the best of health, however, being a sufferer from rheumatism and Bright's disease. As a consequence, he was not able to push along matters of construction as fast as he would have desired. In the fall of 1884 he visited the Arkansas Hot Springs in the hope of gaining rest and relief, but this proved of little avail, for on Ash Wednesday, February 18, l885, he was gathered unto his fathers with these last words on his lips: "I'm tired; I want to go home." As one of his intimate friends in the clergy remarked: "For five years, he had walked with Death as his companion." The funeral took place on the following Friday morning and the Solemn High Mass of Requiem marked the holding of the first religious service in the new Saint Joseph's Church. Alongside the body of the first pastor, the mortal remains of the second pastor were laid at rest in the basement. Just two days later, on February 22, l885, the initial Sunday devotions consisting of Masses and Vespers were held in the church.

There was little delay in the appointment to the vacancy, and on Thursday, February 26, Reverend Father Bernard Boylan, assistant under Reverend Father Edward J. Mongan at Saint Mary's in North Attleboro, assumed charge at Saint Joseph's and has remained to the present day. He made his bow to the people at all the masses on Sunday, March 1, and the splendid impression that he then created has, like the stately and towering oak, grown stronger week by week, month by month, and year by year, until, honored and recognized as the Dean of all the clergy of our city, he commands the respect and confidence not alone of those who bend the knees at Saint Joseph's, but of all god-fearing and liberty-loving residents within the city's gates. His first energies were necessarily directed at completing the preparations for the dedication of the church to the service of the Almighty God, and this event, notable in the annals of the parish was set for Memorial Day of 1885, Saturday, May 30.

Right Reverend Bishop Hendricken presided over the lengthy ceremonial of dedication, and this was followed by a Solemn High Mass with these officers: Celebrant, Reverend Father James F. Roach of Taunton; Deacon, Reverend Father Michael P. Cassidy of Fall River; Sub-Deacon, Reverend Father Patrick McLaughlin of Woonsocket, R.I.; Master of Ceremonies, Reverend Father Michael O'Hare of Fall River. The sermon was by Reverend Father R.J. Barry of Hyde Park, who spoke in English and French from the text: "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel." After paying deserved tribute to the three clergymen who had initiated, carried on and finished the erection of the noble building, he entered into an explanation of the meaning conveyed to the faithful in the dedication of a church and of the great power for good it would be in the community. A score of priests were in the sanctuary, and the congregation that filled every seat in the edifice followed his words with a rare degree of interest.

The church is a large and handsome structure of brick with stone trimmings, 170 feet in length, 78 feet wide and surmounted by two golden crosses. The walls are 30 feet high, while from the loftiest point of the roof to the floor the distance is 73 feet. There is a seating capacity of about a thousand. Built without galleries, it is well lighted by several large stained glass windows on the north and south sides, and its cheerfulness is one of the things for which the church is noted. The pictures on the windows are emblematic of episodes in the life of our Blessed Lord. Among the donors of the original set of windows were Mr. and Mrs. James Hayden, Cornelius L. Kelly and Family, Mrs. David Sheedy and Family, Mr. and Mrs. John Collins, In Memory of Reverend Father Bric, In Memory of Reverend Father Brady and a number of the church societies.

These windows, after long and valiant service, were replaced in 1921 by new ones, the donors of which were: Sanctuary, Sacrifice of Abraham, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James H. Mahoney; Sacrifice of Melchisedech, In Memory of John J. and Mary Shay; Glorification of Saint Joseph, Gift of Altar Society; Coronation of the Blessed Virgin, Gift of Children of Mary Sodality. Vestry - Gift of Rev. Thomas J. McLean, in Memory of Evelyn Walsh; In Memory of Frank Sullivan. Vestibule - In Memory of Thomas Hudner; In Memory of Frank C. Sullivan; Confessionals - In Memory of Joseph H. Sullivan; In Memory of John R. Sullivan. Gallery - In Memory of Helen Powers; In Memory of Thomas O'Neil; In Memory of Parents of Mr. & Mrs. Owen Luddy; Gift of Mr. & Mrs. John R. Sullivan. Choir, in Rear of Organ - In Memory of Parents of Mr. & Mrs. James A. Burke; In Memory of Jeremiah and Annie Murphy; In Memory of Living and Dead members of the Holy Name Society. Nave - In Memory of Bernard and Bridget Mullaney; In Memory of Rev. Andrew J. Brady; In Memory of Mary L. Brady (by the Family); In Memory of Evelyn and Angela Whalen; In Memory of Richard and Mary Rigby (by the Family); In Memory of William and Jane Roscoe; In Memory of Mary O'Brien (by Michael O'Brien); In Memory of Catherine Higney (by the Family); In Memory of James and Mary Sullivan; In Memory of James and Kathryn Kerrigan (by the Family); In Memory of Sarah Sullivan; In Memory of Rev. William H. Bric; In Memory of James Sullivan.

On the walls between the windows, on the north and south sides, there have been recently installed new stations of the cross of a most impressive character, the donors being, in the numerical order of their appearance: Reverend Father Bernard Boylan, Mr. and Mrs. John J. Shay, Mrs. and Miss Hannah Bric, Mrs. Mary Dwyer, Mrs. Mary Rigby, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Waldron, Mr. and Mrs. M.H. Sullivan, John Lewis, Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Riley, Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Walmsley, Hanora Crowther, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas O'Donnell, William Ashton, Mr. and Mrs.Luke Boylan.

The three broad entrances from North Main street open into large vestibules from which swinging doors lead into the body of the church. In the south and north vestibules stairs ascend to the choir gallery, which extends across the entire western portion of the edifice and to a depth of 30 feet. The auditorium is divided by three broad aisles. The flooring is or hard pine and the pews are of ash with black walnut trimmings. An even dozen iron pillars, six on each side, are enclosed in wood, presenting the appearance of clustered columns and upholding the hardwood groins that support the roof.

The ceiling and sides are frescoed in panels and show a very neat effect. The sanctuary is fitted up with rare beauty and taste. Running almost the entire width of the church, the sanctuary has a smaller altar at either side, dedicated to Saint Joseph, the patron saint, and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. These have just been under the skilled hands of decorators, and, like the main altar, painted in white and gold, are more resplendent than at any time since the day of their construction. A handsome new carpet on the floor of the sanctuary, green in color with red trimmings, adds the last detail to the beauteous ensemble.

The sanctuary is separated from the auditorium by a highly polished, elaborately-carved oak railing, in front of which communicants kneel upon a raised step, and it matches superbly a most substantially-built pulpit of oak with heavy brass trimmings. In the windows above the side altars are striking colored representations of the Glorification of Saint Joseph and of the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On the wall back of the main altar and rising high above it is a large fresco of Christ's Crucifixion and Mary clinging to the cross; on the south wall a painting of the Resurrection and on the north wall one of the Annunciation.

The story of the administration of Reverend Father Boylan, covering a stretch reaching almost into the third generation, is as brilliant as it is lengthy. One of his first acts was to reorganize the Sunday School, over which he placed as its first Superintendent William J. McGrath, drawn from the ranks of the Christian Doctrine Society, and who held the position for a number of years. the initial mission in the parish history was in October 1886 and lasted two weeks - the first for the English-speaking members conducted by Reverend Fathers McGrath and Fitzpatrick, the second for the French speaking members in charge of Reverend Fathers Bournigable and Lagier, of the Oblate Order from Lowell.

During all these years the parish had been a mixed one, but with the increasing roll of French-Canadians they began to agitate for the formation of a church of their own, and so on December 1, l887, they were set apart as a new parish to be called Saint Matthew's and with Reverend Father J.A. Payan as their spiritual head. The death of Right Reverend Bishop Hendricken had occurred in the meantime, and in April 1888, his successor, Right Reverend Matthew Harkins, made an official visitation to Saint Joseph's. He read the 8 o'clock Mass, gave Holy Communion to the children, assisted by his presence at the High Mass of the Sunday and preached on the feast day - the Patronage of Saint Joseph.

For a long time it had been realized that the small and antiquated house that was being used as a rectory was wholly unfit for the purpose, and Reverend Father Boylan had plans prepared for a more commodious parish home. In the summer of 1889 the old residence was sold and moved off the premises, which soon housed a new building erected at the cost of between $8000 and $9000 including the furnishings. It is still doing service as Saint Joseph's rectory and has within the past few months been repainted without and partially refurnished within, so that it presents a cozy and attractive appearance. The domestic affairs of the household are presided over by the two sisters of the pastor, the Misses Ellen E. and Kathryn A. Boylan, who have served most acceptably and helpfully virtually from the day of his coming into the parish.

On Sunday, November 22, l889, the League of the Sacred Heart was introduced. Reverend Father Noonan, of the Society of Jesus, from Saint Joseph's Church in Providence, spoke at length at the morning masses that day on the advantages and blessings of membership in the league and again at the evening service, when the names of many who expressed a wish to become associated in the formation of a new center was taken.

In the fall of the following year, from October 26 to November 9, inclusive, a two weeks' mission was given by Passionist Fathers from Hoboken, N.J., Reverend Fathers Alphonsus and Norbert, the first week for the women and the second for the men. A week later, November 16, the parishioners rejoiced in a visit from Right Reverend Bishop Harkins, the Ordinary of the Diocese, who administered the rites of Confirmation at the High Mass and spoke about the fruits of the sacrament. On the Sunday within the octave of the Feast of the Sacred Heart in the following year, 1891, a program of Musical Vespers was offered in the evening, during which a most able sermon on "The Sacred Heart" was preached by Reverend Father John Lynch at Saint Charles' Church, Woonsocket, R.I. Preceding the Solemn Benediction, diplomas and crosses were conferred on the promoters of the League of the Sacred Heart. So steady had been the numerical growth of the parish that another large class was soon in preparation for the reception of the sacrament of Confirmation, and Right Reverend Bishop Harkins officiated at the service on October 23, l892.

A two weeks' mission was opened on Sunday, February 11, 1894, and was conducted with most successful spiritual results by Reverend Fathers James and Hyacinthe from the monastery of the Passionist Fathers at Hoboken, N.J. On the closing afternoon the first-named clergyman delivered a special discourse on "The Holy Name," and formed a society of that character, the first board of officers appointed by the pastor consisting of the later Reverend Father William S. Flynn (uncle of His Excellency William S. Flynn, present Governor of the State of Rhode Island), as Chaplain and Spiritual Director; the late Gilbert P. Cuttle as President; the late John Hanrahan as Vice-President; William J. McGrath as Secretary, and the late Michael Maley, Sr., as Treasurer. One of the big events in the early history of the organization was the reception of new members a few weeks later, on the first Sunday of April, the sermon, of a highly impressive nature, being given with all the power of the preacher, Reverend Father James Coyle, then pastor of Saint Joseph's Church at Newport, R.I. and at the present time, a Right Reverend Monsignor and Permanent Rector of Saint Mary's Church at Taunton.

The visitation to the parish for the year 1895 by Right Reverend Bishop Harkins proved an event of marked interest and much pride on the part of pastor and people, for it was his gracious privilege to bestow the holy rites of Confirmation on 125 children and seven adults, five of the latter being converts. At the High Mass of that morning he selected words from the gospel as the text of his sermon and paid a merited tribute to the pastor for his zeal and efficiency. On the afternoon of Sunday, June 2, during the Vesper service, the preacher was Reverend Father John A. Hurley, then of Pawtucket, R.I., but long since deceased, and a brother of Danuel Hurley of Stanley street and Mrs. Susan McDonald and Miss Mary Hurley of North Main street, all members of Saint Joseph's parish. The particular object of Reverend Father Hurley's presence at his old home church was to assist at the reorganization of two of the girls' societies - the Infant Jesus and Children of Mary. His discourse was on "Devotion to the Blessed Virgin" and was as powerful from the spiritual standpoint as was the preacher from the physical point of view. It is worthy of note that Miss Mary G. McDonald, niece of the lamented clergyman, is now and has been for many years President of the Children of Mary Sodality.

And thus, and so runs the long story of the growth of Saint Joseph's parish – in number, in influence, in affluence. With the annual service of the Forty Hours' Adoration, the yearly First Communion classes, the Confirmation classes at stated intervals, special services of the nature of missions or retreats at periodic seasons, in addition to the regular daily and Sunday devotions, the spiritual side was well taken care of by Reverend Father Boylan and his assistants; with parish picnics at the old Ashley's Grove (now the site of Saint Vincent's Orphans' Home), with bazaars and dramatic entertainments and coffee suppers in the parish hall that long since was wiped out in the course of improving the church grounds, with the annual excursion down the river that became known as the one big summer event of the north end, the social side was amply provided for; with a fine response to the appeals of the pastor for financial help when the parish stood in need of extra funds for building or renovation, the financial side caused little or no worry; and with a handsome, new, well-equipped Parochial School, in charge of experienced teachers of the Sisterhood, the educational side left nothing to be desired.

Saint Joseph's has ever been a happy and united household in the faith, people working harmoniously and effectively with the pastor and his curates and these religious leaders giving of their best in return to the people. Small wonder that Catholics generally throughout the city looked upon Saint Joseph's as a model parish and upon its pastor as one of God's noblemen! With an eye always to the training of the children of today, who are destined to become the men and women of tomorrow, he banded them together into various organizations, urged them to attend Holy Communion regularly and frequently, and gave them a thorough insight into the practices of their religion and the reception of the sacraments. Thus directed and encouraged, they grew into young manhood and young womanhood well equipped for the battles of the world and prepared to take their places as full-fledged parishioners when the fond and loving parents were forced into involuntary retirement or were perhaps called upon to give the final account of their stewardship at the judgment seat. The spiritual advancement of his flock has been for more than 38 years the chief thought in the mind of the venerated Father Boylan, and how well he has succeeded is too well known to need recital here.

Mention may be made briefly of a large Sunday School for boys and girls, an Altar Society for married women that approaches the communion table on the first Sunday of each month, a League of the Sacred heart for men and women that receives the sacrament on the first Friday, the Children of Mary Sodality on the second Sunday, the Holy Name Society and the Holy Angels' Sodality on the third Sunday and the Sacred Heart Society for boys on the fourth Sunday. The members of the Children of Mary Sodality gather on the Monday evening following their communion for religious instruction from their chaplain, Reverend Father Thomas J. McLean, and the Holy Name Society members on the night of their communion for religious instruction from their director, Reverend Father Thomas P. Doherty. It is Reverend Father Boylan's custom to arrange for special sermons during the Lenten periods of each year, with Missionary Fathers as the speakers, and during the Lenten season just closed the preachers were Dominican Fathers from the Providence College.

While in the 50 years of life at Saint Joseph's parish there have been but three pastors, a large number of young priests have filled in as curates or temporary assistants, the greater part of them having long since gone to their eternal reward. The list follows: 1874, Reverend Father Daniel A. Ryan; 1874, Reverend Father Edward E. Norbert; 1878, Reverend Father Thomas F. Briscoe; 1878-1881; Reverend Father John H. Gormley; 1881-1882, Reverend Father James F. Roach; 1883, Reverend Father James J. Brady, now pastor of Saint Killian's Church in New Bedford; 1883-1885, Reverend Father Michael P. Cassidy; 1885, Reverend Father Thomas P. Elliott; 1885, Reverend Father Daniel J. Coughlin; 1886-1887, Reverend Father William S. Flynn; 1888-1889, Reverend Father Daniel Driscoll, 1890-1896, Reverend Father William S. Flynn; 1896-1910, Reverend Father Thomas A. Kelly, now pastor of Saints Peter and Paul's Church in this city; 1910-1912, Reverend Father John F. McDonnell, now curate at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Springfield; 1912-1913, Reverend Father Timothy J. Duff; 1914-1921, Reverend Father John E. Morris, now attached to the Catholic Foreign Mission Seminary at Maryknoll, N.Y. The present young and energetic assistants of Reverend Father Boylan are Reverend Father Thomas P. Doherty, who with the exception of a few weeks has spent his entire priestly life here, and Reverend Father Thomas J. McLean, who came among us in 1921.

One of the leading events in the social life of the parishioners of Saint Joseph's was the annual excursion, it growing from a small party of a few hundred until it became known, in the words of Reverend Father Boylan, as the annual reunion, not alone of his own flock, but of countless former parishioners who had removed to various sections of the city and even to other nearby cities. The first affair of this nature took place on Tuesday, August 20, 1895, on steamer King Philip, to Crescent Park. Arranged at rather short notice, nevertheless the boat was well filled when it headed down the river to the summer resort. The next year, July 28, l996, the crowd was so large that when Weetamoe Mill wharf was left behind the officials would not stop at the Globe wharf to pick up the delegation that was there awaiting the arrival of the craft.

Year after year thereafter until the earlier days of the Great World War struggle this outing was conducted regularly under the auspices of the Holy Name Society of the parish, and the series was regretfully terminated only when it became impossible to charter a boat of any kind for the purpose. Steamer Warwick, with a capacity of 1800, had been regularly leased for a date in the latter part of each July or the beginning of August when once it was seen that the King Philip could not begin to accommodate the party, and there have been occasions when the full limit was taken on the larger craft and latecomers were left on the wharf. Besides Crescent Park, the destination was often Rocky Point, and after spending several hours at the pleasure spot a sail through Newport Harbor was usually enjoyed on the homeward-bound trip.

Excursion recollections are exceedingly enjoyable ones for many of the older parishioners. It was the one day in the year when it might well have been termed "Evacuation Day" for Bowenville and all roads seemed to lead to the wharf where the steamer was in waiting for its human cargo. From babies in arms to veterans who had passed the allotted three score and ten, with Reverend Father Boylan usually at the starting point to marshall his forces and always the last man to debark at the end of the day's journey after the assurance that all had gone well, with a financial profit to the parish running in the last few years over the thousand dollar mark, with a social enjoyment to men, women and children that could not be measured by money, it was, indeed, a matter of the deepest sorrow when conditions entirely beyond the control of the committeemen brought to a close Saint Joseph's parish excursions.

Not a little justifiable pride is taken in the Parochial School, a solid brick structure of two floors and eight rooms, with all the accessories, a large yard for play purposes in good weather and a clean and well-kept basement for use in adverse weather. It is located on the North High street side of the church property and is thoroughly equipped for the uses to which it is put, several thousand dollars having been spent within during the past few years in renovating and refurnishing it. At the beginning of the school year in September 1907, it was opened for business with Reverend father Thomas A. kelly in charge, he remaining at the helm until may of 1910; then followed Reverend Father John F. McDonnell until June 1912, the late Reverend Father Timothy J. Duff for one year and Reverend Father Thomas P. Doherty from June 1913 to the present date.

At the head of the teaching faculty was Sister Mary Paula from the opening session until December 1908, Sister Mary Magdalen from January 1909 to June 1911, Sister Mary Ephrem from September 1911 to December 1913, Sister Mary Felix from December 1913 to June 1914, Sister Mary Catherine from September 1914 to June 1917, Sister Mary Assumpta from September 1917 to June 1919 and Sister Mary Augustine from September 1919 to the present day. The first graduating class numbered two, the second increased to three, there were 26 in l922 and to date a total of 165 graduates. John Chippendale of Harvard street, to be ordained to the priesthood in May of this year, will have the signal honor of being the only graduate of the school so far to have conferred upon him the sacrament of Holy Orders.

As showing the financial strength of Saint Joseph's parish, a few figures gleaned from the annual report of the year 1922 may be significantly quoted. With but a single night's entertainment of a social nature (which netted $2,505.80), and with nothing of an extraordinary nature to add to the general revenue, the receipts aggregated $31,681.82 and the expenditures totaled $20,400.88, leaving a balance in the church treasury of $11,280.94 on the first of January of the current year. This compares most favorably with a balance of $5,633.83 at the end of the preceding twelve-month. One item that was of an especially pleasing character and size was the annual collection, this offering amounting to $4,272.33. "I am truly and deeply grateful," was the comment of the Reverend Father Boylan, and these few words spoke volumes.

Reverend Father William H. Bric, the first pastor and founder of Saint Joseph's parish was born in Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland, in 1841, and made his preparatory studies for the priesthood at Killarney, in the beautiful and historic lake section of the Emereld Isle, and then at Cambrai, in Southern France, after which he came to this country and was sent by the then Right Reverend Bishop McFarland to the Seminary of Saint Sulpice at Baltimore, Md., where he was ordained to the priesthood. After curacies at Woonsocket, R.I., and at the Providence Cathedral, he was named as pastor for Harrisville and Slatersville, R.I., remaining in charge there for four years. Then it was that he was selected by Right Reverend Bishop Hendricken to form and get into being the new Saint Joseph's parish in this city, where his tasks were large and his labors unceasing for a period of seven years. He had long suffered from rheumatism, and when this painful disease touched a vital spot on Saturday, August 7, l880, he was called away from earthly activities and summoned to the higher life. Apart from his priestly duties and responsibilities, he had served two full terms of three years each as a member of the Fall River School Committee, being regarded far and wide in the community as a man of scholarly attainments and broad-minded views.

The funeral of Reverend Father Bric took place on Wednesday morning of the next week, every avenue of approach to the church being packed by people. The various parish organizations of men, women and children assembled with full ranks and wearing mourning emblems, half a hundred priests from all sections of the Diocese occupied seats in the sanctuary and in the front pews, while scores upon scores of non-Catholics were scattered throughout the congregation. The officers of the Solemn High Mass of Requiem were: Celebrant, Reverend Father McCabe of Woonsocket, R.I.; Deacon, Reverend Father Campbell of Hartford, Conn; Sub-Deacon, Reverend Father Kinnerney of Providence; Master of Ceremonies, Reverend Father Kane of Valley Falls, R.I. Right Reverend Bishop Hendricken pronounced the absolution and gave the final blessing, following a touching eulogy by Reverend Father Walsh of Waterbury, Conn. The body was then interred in a specially-constructed tomb in the basement of the new church, directly under the main altar. Reverend Father Bric's survivors of today are a brother, Thomas M. Bric of Newport, R.I., and a sister, Katherine Bric of Hingham, Mass.

Reverend Father Andrew J. Brady, the second pastor of Saint Joseph's, was like his predecessor, a native of Ireland, having first seen the light of day in a small village of County Cavan in 1847. Following a common school education, he pursued his collegiate and classical studies in one of the Irish colleges, then coming to this country and continuing his theological course in the Grand Seminary, Montreal, where he was ordained in 1871. His first assignment was to Olneyville, R.I., and, subsequently, he labored in Attleboro. When Reverend Father Matthias McCabe was transferred from Sandwich to the pastorate of the Church of the Sacred Heart in this city, his duties among the Cape Cod Catholics were taken up by Reverend Father Brady, and there he toiled early and late until drafted to take the place of Reverend Father Bric here. He found the church in an incomplete state, but by his own energy and the encouragement of the parishioners the edifice was all but finished during his administration of affairs. An event of one year while he was pastor was the celebration of Saint John's day, when all of the French-speaking organizations of the city marched in parade from the center to Saint Joseph's Church and there attended the offering up of Holy Mass, with outdoor festivities following. On many a Sunday Reverend Father Brady was in no physical shape to perform his priestly duties, but he insisted on celebrating the Holy Sacrifice and speaking to his people until he wore out.

The end came on Ash Wednesday, February 18, l885, and the last words that he gave utterance to were these: "I'm tired; I want to go home!" On the Friday of that week, February 20, the funeral ceremonies were held with the first religious service in the new church, the officers of the Solemn High Mass of Requiem being: Celebrant, Reverend Father McCabe of Fall River; Deacon, Reverend Father Roach of Taunton; Sub-Deacon, Reverend Father Grace of Fall River; Master of Ceremonies, Reverend Father Briscoe of Fall River. The eulogy was ably delivered by Reverend Father Kinnerney of Pawtucket, R.I., with the absolution and the final blessing by the head of the diocese, Right Reverend Bishop Hendricken. As in the death of the founder of the parish, the body of Reverend Father Brady was laid at rest in a vault in the basement of the church.

Reverend Father Bernard Boylan, the third pastor in the half-century existence of Saint Joseph's, was born in Wareham, Mass., on September 25, l853. He attended the public schools of his native town until he was 11 years of age and then prepared for college at Pierce Academy in Middleboro. In 1868 he entered Saint Charles' College at Ellicott City, near Baltimore, Md., where he completed the regular college courses and graduated with high honors in June 1872. The fall of that year marked his entrance as a student of Philosophy in Saint Laurent's College, near Montreal, he remaining there for a period of two years. Next, he engaged principally in the study of Dogmatic and Moral Theology, the Scriptures and Canon Law at the Grand Seminary in Montreal, the culmination of his efforts being his ordination to the priesthood there by Right Reverend Edward Charles Fabre, Bishop of the Diocese of Montreal, on December 23, 1876.

Having been adopted by the Providence Diocese, Reverend Father Boylan presented his letters to Right Reverend Bishop Hendricken and was selected by the latter as assistant to Reverend Doctor Michael A. Wallace, pastor of Saint Michael's church at South Providence, where he remained for eight months. In those comparatively early days of the Middle Western States there was a great demand for the services of Catholic priests, and Reverend Father Boylan was one of the first to respond to the call. He was stationed by the late Right Reverend Bishop John L. Spalding of the Diocese of Peoria as pastor of Saint Paul's Church at Odell, Ill., and there he labored for five years with such marked success for his church and the people that some time subsequently, after he had returned to the East, a new parish was created in his Illinois settlement and in his honor it was named Saint Bernard's, a flattering but most worthy tribute.

Recalled to the Providence Diocese, the first assignment of the young clergyman was to Saint Charles' Church at Woonsocket, R.I., and three months afterwards he was transferred to Saint Mary's Church in North Attleboro. Upon the demise of Reverend Father Brady early in 1885, he was selected as the clergyman in the diocese best fitted to assume the onerous burden of completing the erection of Saint Joseph's Church and arranging for the paying off of the large debt that had been necessarily contracted. Like the hero of centuries past, the historian might well and truthfully write of him: "He came, he saw, he conquered." From that day to the present he has given of his best for the moral and spiritual uplift and advancement of the thousands and thousands who have in all the intervening years been committed to his temporal care, sharing with them their joys and sorrows, a veritable shepherd of the flock. In the earlier years of his pastorate he was often forced to carry on the work single-handed, owing to the scarcity of priests, but he never faltered or hesitated in his tasks.

For a long period, Reverend Father Boylan was Treasurer of Saint Vincent's Orphans' Home, being the first to assume this position and retaining it until a permanent resident chaplain for this great local charity was appointed in the person of the late Reverend Cornelius S. Kelly. While he was at the head of affairs, he was the director of numerous fairs, bazaars and like social ventures upon whose profit the institution well-nigh depended for the funds to support it and carry on its work. Likewise he was treasurer for several years of Saint Patrick's Cemetery and in the conduct of this was compelled to devote no inconsiderable part of his time to its supervision. He is now and has been for an extended period a member of the Board of Consultors of the Fall River Diocese. For a great many years he and his curates have ministered to the spiritual wants of the Catholic inmates of the City Hospital, as well as to those of the old City Almshouse when it was located within the parish lines, offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on Sundays and holy days and attending to the sick and dying at any hour of the day or night. Of a class of 35 young men ordained the day that Reverend Father Boylan took the solemn vows, eight were assigned to the Providence Diocese, and the only other survivor today of this latter group is Reverend Father James A. Gleeson of Providence.

A matter of great pride to Reverend Father Boylan is the large number of Saint Joseph's boys who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders and who are today staunch leaders of the church in their various spheres of activity. They are: Reverend Father Edward A. Higney, pastor of Saint Joseph's, Newport, R.I.; Reverend Father John A. Hurley (the only one deceased and at the time pastor of Saint Mary's, North Attleboro); Reverend Father David F. Sheedy, pastor of Saint John's, Attleboro; Reverend Father Peter J. Malone, pastor of the Holy Name, Providence; Reverend Father William K. Dwyer, pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows, Corona, L.I.; Reverend Father Daniel A. Dwyer, assistant to his brother at Corona; Reverend Father James R.J. Burns, curate at the Holy Name, New Bedford; Reverend Father Robert V. Dwyer, curate at Saints Peter and Paul's, New York City; Reverend Doctor Patrick A. Collis, professor of Latin at Saint Charles' Seminary, Overbrook, Pa.; Reverend Father John J. Shay, curate at Saint Mary's, Taunton; Reverend Father John Kelly, curate at Saint Mary's Cathedral, Fall River; Reverend Father Edward L. O'Brien, curate at Saint John's, Attleboro. In addition, Reverend Father Cornelius J. Holland, pastor of Saint Charles' Church, Woonsocket, was a resident of the parish at the time of his ordination.

The trustees of the church are Henry J. Whalen and James H. O'Neil.

In 1902 nine Sisters of St. Joseph from the mother-house at Le Puy took charge of the school in the French parish of St-Roch, Fall River, Massachusetts. The accession of other members from the mother-house enabled the community to take charge of three other schools in the city attached to French parishes. In 1906 St. Theresa's Convent was formally opened as the provincial house of the community, which was legally incorporated in the same year, and a novitiate was established. In the mid 1970s, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Fall River merged with the Springfield Congregation.

Sisters of St. Joseph

The Sisters of St. Joseph, also known as the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph and abbreviated C.S.J. or S.S.J., is a Roman Catholic religious congregation of women founded in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, in 1650. This Congregation, named for Saint Joseph, has approximately 14,000 members worldwide: about 7,000 in the United States; 2,000 in France; and are active in fifty other countries.

The Sisters of Saint Joseph comprise three international congregations (Lyons, Chambéry, and Annecy) and four federations (French, Italian, US, and Canadian), representing more than 14,000 Sisters worldwide.

The Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of Lyons number nearly 1,000, serving in four provinces (Maine, Mexico, India and Europe) in fifteen countries. The Sisters operate many Catholic schools and hospitals in France, the United States, Canada, Japan and England. In India they operate hospitals, homes, and orphanages.

The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph was founded by Jean-Pierre Medaille (although older accounts attribute his to his brother, Jean Paul). Medaille sought to establish an ecclesiastically approved congregation of women who would profess simple vows, live in a small group, with no specific apostolates and would dress in a common garb of the women of their day. The original six sisters were Anna Brun, an orphan; Marguerite Burdier; war widow, Claudia Chastel; Anna Chraleyer; Anna Vey, age 15; and Francoise Eyraud, a hospital administrator, served as superior of the new community for 30 years. The Bishop of LePuy, France, Henri de Maupas gave the foundation canonical status. Although the Congregation celebrates October 15, 1650 as its beginning, there is evidence that points to an earlier founding, more likely between 1646 and 1650. All the women made ribbon and lace that gave them some income to support themselves. In turn they taught others to make lace and ribbon.

The new Congregation enjoyed rapid growth, expanding into eighteen houses during the first decade. By the time of the French Revolution, almost 150 years later, the Sisters had spread to twelve dioceses in the southeast corner of France. The Congregation of Saint Joseph was disbanded during the French Revolution. The convents and chapels of the community were confiscated in 1793. The Sisters were forced to choose between returning to their families or leaving France to join communities in other countries. Some Sisters who remained became martyrs. Three in Dauphiné and two in Haute-Loire were sent to the guillotine because they refused to take the Civil Oath. Others were imprisoned at St-Didier, Feurs and Clermont.

The congregation was re-established in 1807 by Mother Saint John Fontbonne in Lyon, France. As word of the Sisters' services and good deeds grew, dioceses throughout France requested the services of the restored Congregation. Houses were established in the dioceses of Lyon, Chambéry, Annecy, Gap, Bourg, and Bordeaux.

In 1902 many French houses of the congregation were closed by the Government, in consequence of which a large number of Sisters left for Denmark, Russia and the United States. In 1996 the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Bourg re-joined the Sisters of St. Joseph of Lyon as part of the latter's European Province.

The center of the Congregation is in Rome. Other Provinces and Regions are located in Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, India, Italy, Mozambique, Norway, Pakistan, Sweden and Tanzania. The order has approximately 1,800 sisters in 18 countries.

In 1812 a colony of Sisters of St. Joseph was sent from Lyon to Chambéry, in Savoy, France under Mother St. John Marcoux. She in turn sent sisters to Turin and to Pignerole in the Piedmont, thus giving rise to new branches of Saint Joseph sisters. In 1843 Mother Félicité became Mother Superior. More than eighty houses rose under her direction, and when, in 1861, a state normal school was opened at Rumilly, Savoy, France. it was placed in charge of the sisters. Meanwhile, the Chambéry sisters had been constituted 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 novices, 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.

In 1819 a foundation from the motherhouse in Lyon was established in the Diocese of Belley under the leadership of Mother Saint Joseph Chaney. In 1823 the Sisters of that diocese formally separated from community in Lyon. They became a new and independent diocesan congregation under the leadership of Reverend Mother Saint Benoit Cornillon and the authority of Bishop Alexander Devie. Several other foundations spread from France throughout the world. In 1996 the Bourg congregation merged with the founding congregation of Lyon, as part of the latter's European Province.

The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Annecy is an international congregation of about 500 sisters serving in the Congo, England, France, Gambia, India, Ireland, Senegal, Switzerland, Tanzania and Wales.

In 1833, an SSJ community was founded in Annecy. The new Congregation grew and developed, and their first mission in India was established in 1849. A provincial house and novitiate are located in Visakhapatnam (once known as Waltair), Andhra Pradesh.

In the summer of 1864, two Sisters of St Joseph of Annecy set out on a voyage from India to the UK to open a community in the small town of Devizes, Wiltshire, England. In 1946, Llantarnam Abbey in Wales was bought by the Sisters of St. Joseph and is home to a large community of Sisters. The Sisters farm the adjoining land. Llantarnam Abbey in Cwmbran, South Wales stands on the site of a medieval Cistercian monastery. The Tŷ Croeso ecumenical retreat centre adjoins the Abbey.

There are eight houses in the United Kingdom, under the provincial house and novitiate at Llantarnam Abbey. The congregation now numbers 60, in charge of 10 elementary day and boarding-schools, with an attendance of about 2000. In Scotland at St Mary's College, Blairs, 15 sisters have charge of the household arrangements and work of the college.

On March 19, 2015 the Bhubanwswar Province of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Annecy opened St. Joseph's Hospital in the city of Agartala, Tripura, India.

The Federation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph is a union of all the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the United States who claim a common origin in the foundation at LePuy, France in 1650. It was formed in 1966 and includes approximately 6,500 members of 16 Congregations throughout the United States.

Member congregations are:

This congregation is composed of almost 1,200 vowed sisters who minister in four provinces and two vice provinces. The Congregational Center is located in Sunset Hills, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri.

In the year 1834 Most Rev. Joseph Rosati, Bishop of St. Louis, Missouri, called at the mother-house of the Sisters of St. Joseph at Lyon and asked Mother St. John Fontbonne, the superior, to send a colony of sisters to America to undertake instruction of deaf-mute children. The financial aid necessary was obtained through the Countess de la Roche Jacquelin. The bishop accepted six sisters to instruct the children, and in addition, two others to teach the deaf.

On 17 January 1836 the first six sisters set sail from Le Havre, France on the ship "Natchez". After seven weeks at sea, they arrived in New Orleans March 5, where they were met by the Bishop of St. Louis and Rev. Timon, afterwards Bishop of Buffalo. Bishop Rosati had arranged for them to stay with the Ursuline Sisters in the city and met with them the next day. (He planned to travel north with them to St. Louis.) The sisters enjoyed the hospitality of the Ursulines for two weeks, learning much about life in the United States. The sisters also told them to disguise their religious habit when going abroad and while traveling to St. Louis as there was anti-Catholic feeling among some residents.

The sisters boarded the steamer, the "George Collier", traveled up the Mississippi and reached St. Louis on 25 March 1836. Through Holy Week the sisters resided with the Daughters of Charity, who had a hospital near the Cathedral. On April 7, three of the sisters, accompanied by Bishop Rosati and Father Fontbonne, travelled by boat for Cahokia, Illinois, a former French colonial town, where they opened a school for French and Creole settlers at the request of a Vincentian missionary. On September 12, the remaining sisters settled in a log cabin in the village of Carondelet, about five miles south of the city of St. Louis. At the time the sisters arrived at St. Louis, this humble house was occupied by the Sisters of Charity, who cared for a few orphans there who were soon transferred to a new building. Many institutions have been started from the origin of these sisters and continue their good works. St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf, St. Joseph’s Academy; Fontbonne College, now Fontbonne University, all were founded among the sisters at the convent at Carondelet.

In 1847 the first foundation outside St. Louis was made in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, followed shortly by foundations in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (1851); Hamilton, Ontario (1852); Wheeling, West Virginia (1853); and Canandaigua (1854); Flushing (Brentwood)(1856); Rochester; and Buffalo, all in New York state, which had received many Irish Catholic immigrants. In 1851 Bishop Joseph Cretin went to Carondelet to ask Mother Celestine to send the Sisters of St. Joseph to his new diocese in St. Paul, Minnesota; four sisters reached there by steamboat on 3 November. In 1853 Bishop McCloskey requested sisters for Cohoes, New York. On April 15, 1858, one German, one Irish, and two native-born sisters arrived by train in Oswego, New York in the midst of a snowstorm, to establish a school for Catholic immigrants. In 1869 the Flushing community sent three pioneer sisters to Ebensburg, Pennsylvania.

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 by 1860 had to figure out how to give stability and uniformity to the growing congregation. They called a general chapter in May 1860, to which representatives from every congregational house in America were called. Mother St. John Facemaz was elected first superior general for a term of six years. Shortly afterward, she traveled to Rome to present a copy of the Constitution for Vatican approval. In September 1863, Pope Pius IX issued a degree of commendation. Final approbation was received, dated May 16, 1877. This approval established the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet as a congregation of pontifical right, and unified their communities in various dioceses with the mother-house at Carondelet (now part of St. Louis, Missouri).

During the Civil War, the order sent nuns to serve as Army nurses. However, the head of Army nurses Dorothea Dix distrusted them; her anti-Catholicism and ignorance of the nuns undermined her ability to work with Irish and German sisters, whom she ridiculed as unfeeling. In 1910 the congregation divided into four provinces. The Sisters are known for their work in education and health care, and their activism in opposing the death penalty.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Savannah were established at Savannah in 1867, in charge of the boys' orphanage, and soon afterward became an independent diocesan congregation. In 1876 the orphanage was transferred to Washington, Georgia, and with it the mother-house of the congregation. In 1912 the Sisters opened an academy for women in Augusta which became Mount Saint Joseph. They eventually moved the mother house to Augusta, Georgia. In 1922 the Sisters voted to incorporate themselves into the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet, becoming the Augusta Province.

The St. Louis, Missouri Province comprises the houses of the congregation in the Archdioceses of St. Louis and Chicago, and the Dioceses of St. Joseph, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Peoria, Belleville, Alton, Denver, Marquette, Green Bay, Mobile, and the Diocese of Oklahoma. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Georgia joined as a separate province in 1922 and became part of the St. Louis Province in 1961.

In St. Louis, Missouri the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet St. Louis sponsor Saint Joseph Institute for the Deaf, Saint Joseph's Academy, Fontbonne University, and Ascension Health; and in Kansas City, Missouri, they sponsor Saint Teresa Academy and Avila University.
In 1851, four Sisters arrived in the village of St. Paul, Minnesota, to establish the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, St. Paul Province. A log cabin became the first site of Saint Joseph's Academy in early November 1851, a day and boarding school for girls. In 1853, in response to the cholera epidemic, the sisters turned the school into the first site of St. Joseph's Hospital, which was also the state of Minnesota's first hospital.

The growth of the St. Paul congregation began with the entrance of its first postulants, Ellen Ireland and her cousin Ellen Howard, in the summer of 1858. By then the pattern of response to need had been firmly set with the opening of St. Joseph Academy in St. Paul, Long Prairie Indian Mission, St. Anthony's School in Minneapolis, and St. Joseph Hospital and Cathedral School in St. Paul. Orphans were taken care of in all these institutions.

In 2016, the St. Paul Province celebrated its 175th year. Its ministries range from young adult spirituality to immigrant and refugee services. Through these ministries, St. Paul Sisters and Consociates strive to foster the common good through advocacy, creative arts, education, healthcare, social service, and spirituality.

The Albany Province (formerly Troy, New York) is formed of the houses established in the Dioceses of Albany and Syracuse, New York. The Albany Province of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet founded and sponsor the College of St. Rose, Albany, New York, named in honor of St. Rose of Lima, the first canonized saint in the Americas.

Los Angeles is the youngest of the four provinces of the Congregation of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Already well known in the eastern part of the country with provinces established in St. Louis, St. Paul, and Albany, the Sisters of St. Joseph received an appeal from two pioneer bishops in the West. Santa Fe bishop John Baptist Lamy, and the newly installed bishop of Tucson, John Baptist Salpointe, wrote to Carondelet in the late 1860s asking for sisters to establish a school in Tucson, Arizona.
Seven Sisters began the long journey to the west in April 1870, traveling on the newly completed transcontinental railroad to San Francisco, by steamer to San Diego, and by covered wagon across the American Desert to Tucson, Arizona. Their first school, the future St. Joseph’s Academy, opened on June 6, 1870, eleven days after their arrival in Tucson.
Ministries spread rapidly from this early beginning with schools opening in Arizona and California. Close to the Sisters’ hearts was the education and care of their beloved Native Americans. By 1873, the Sisters had opened a school for the Papago Indians at San Xavier del Bac. Within a few years, they were ministering at Fort Yuma, St. Anthony’s in San Diego, St. Boniface School in Banning, and St. John’s Mission School in Komatke.
When Bishop Salpointe opened St. Mary’s Hospital in Tucson in 1880, health care became an important part of the Sisters’ ministry. Over the years, the Sisters sponsored and operated hospitals in Arizona, California, Washington, and Idaho until recent developments in health care led them to transfer ownership and sponsorship to a Catholic health system.
As the majority of ministries increased in California, Los Angeles was selected as seat of the western province and established in 1903. Academies were established as early as 1882, Mount St. Mary’s College (now University) was founded in 1925, and Sisters were teaching in parish schools in five states. Work with the deaf, a treasured tradition since the first days in St. Louis, flourished for many years in Oakland and San Francisco. In 1925, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Lewiston, Idaho, joined the Carondelet congregation. In 2011, the Sisters of the Vice Province of Japan joined the Los Angeles Province as a region.
From the first days in Arizona, education and health care merged naturally into other forms of care of the dear neighbor. Over the years, and especially after Vatican II, the Sisters’ work has expanded and diversified, including parish service, adult education, spiritual direction and retreat work, direct service of the poor, and justice activities.
Sponsored institutions:
Academy of Our Lady of Peace, San Diego
Carondelet High School, Concord, CA
St. Joseph High School, Lakewood, CA (philosophical sponsorship)
St. Joseph Joshi Gakuen, Tsu, Japan
St. Mary’s Academy, Inglewood, CA
Mount St. Mary’s University, Los Angeles
St. Joseph Center, Venice, CA
Selected province works:
A Friendly Manor
Alexandria House
Circle the City
Get on the Bus
House of Yahweh
Villa Maria House of Prayer
The congregation established foundations in Hawaii in 1938, in Japan in 1956 and in Peru in 1962. These have flourished and attracted native-born members. The Hawaii community became a vice-province in 1956, the Japan and Peru communities in 1978.

The superior general and four general councillors, elected every six years by the whole congregation, form the general governing body, assisted by a superior provincial and four provincial councillors in each province. The provincial officers are appointed by the general officers every three years, as are the local superiors of all the provinces.

In each provincial house, as in the mother-house, a novitiate is established. The term of postulantship extends from three to six months, the term of novitiate two years, after which 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 obedience which assigns duties according to ability, talent, and aptitude.

Although an interchange of members of the various provinces is allowed and made use of for general or particular needs, the autonomy of each province is safeguarded. The constitutions, while establishing on a solid basis the idea of a general government, allow no small share of local initiative and carefully provide for local needs. In this way too much centralization or peril to establishments working in accordance with local and special exigencies is guarded against.

In 1847 the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, in response to an appeal of Bishop Kenrick, sent four members of the community to Philadelphia to take charge of St. John's Orphan Asylum, until that time under the Sisters of Charity. The Know-Nothing spirit, which had but a short time previously led to the Philadelphia riots was still rampant, and the sisters had much to suffer from bigotry and difficulties of many kinds. Shortly afterwards they were given charge of several parochial schools, and thus entered on what was to be their chief work in the coming years.

In October 1858, under the patronage of St. John Neumann, the congregation in Philadelphia began to take a more definite development by the establishment of a mother-house at Mount St. Joseph, Chestnut Hill. When the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Louis formed a generalate in 1863 (approved later by the Holy See), the congregation of Philadelphia preserved its autonomy, by the wish of the bishop. When the number of religious members increased to between three and four hundred, and the works entrusted to them became so numerous and varied as to necessitate an organization more detailed and definite, steps were undertaken to obtain the papal approbation, which was received in 1895.

During the Civil War, detachments of sisters nursed the sick soldiers in Camp Curtin and the Church Hospital, Harrisburg. Despite anti-Catholic sentiments from doctors and soldier-nurses who did not appreciate the sisters' presence, the sisters worked at the camp until its closure in April 1864. Shortly after, under Surgeon General Smith, they undertook more active duty on the floating hospital, Whilldin, which received the wounded from both sides at the battle of Yorktown, and other southern battle-fields.

For two thirds of the 1900s, the group supplied teachers to hundreds of elementary and secondary schools in the Philadelphia area, educating generations of children and young adults. The trademark white triangle that was worn as part of the sisters' veil was present until 1974. The changes in life style and ministry that were common in Catholic religious institutes of women in the late 1960s took a little longer to catch up with this group who held on to convent living in traditional parish settings as well as a modified habit and veil up to the mid-1980s.

From a membership high of close to 2,500 is the mid-sixties, the current 2017 membership is under 750 with most of the membership in full or partial retirement.

Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia sponsored institutions: Saint Joseph Academy McSherrystown, Pennsylvania; Mount Saint Joseph Academy (Flourtown, Pennsylvania); Villa St Joseph; Saint Mary By-The-Sea Retreat House in Cape May Point, New Jersey; Norwood-Fontbonne Academy; Holy Family Academy (Bayonne, NJ); SSJ Center for Spirituality Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia; Bethlehem Retirement Village, Flourtown, PA; Sisters of Saint Joseph Welcome Center, Philadelphia (Kensington), PA; and Chestnut Hill College, in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania

The Sisters of St. Joseph, Brentwood is an independent diocesan congregation.
In the spring of 1856 the Right Rev. John Loughlin, first Bishop of Brooklyn, applied to the mother-house at Philadelphia for sisters, and two religious were named for the new mission, joined during the same year by a sister from Buffalo. St. Mary's Academy, Williamsburg, was opened on September 8, 1856, and in the following year a parochial school was inaugurated. In 1860 the mother-house, novitiate, and boarding school were removed to Flushing, Long Island, whence the activity of the sisters was gradually extended over the diocese. In 1903 the mother-house and novitiate were again transferred to Brentwood, New York, where an academy was opened the same year.

Sisters of St. Joseph, Brentwood sponsor, among other ministries: Saint Joseph's College (New York), St. Joseph High School (Brooklyn), The Mary Louis Academy, Fontbonne Hall Academy, Sacred Heart Academy (New York), Bishop Kearney High School (New York City) and Academia Maria Reina

In 1869 the Sisters of St. Joseph, Brentwood, (then located in Flushing, New York) sent three pioneer sisters to Ebensburg, Pennsylvania: Sisters Hortense Tello, Xavier Phelan, and Sister Austin Keane, a native of nearby Loretto, Pennsylvania, who had been baptized by Father Demetrius Gallitzin, the pioneering priest in western Pennsylvania. Five days after their arrival in Ebensburg, the three St. Joseph Sisters opened a day-school and a boarding-school, Mount Gallitzin Seminary for Boys.

In 1902 a four-story school and convent to serve as both Mt. Gallitzin Academy and their new motherhouse was dedicated in Baden. Their original motherhouse in Ebensburg was remodeled into an infant home where they nurtured newborns and toddlers from 1923 to 1959.

From 1926 to 1948, 15 Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden ministered in China. Their mission in Hunan Province included an orphanage and hospital. Sister Theresa Joseph Lung, a native of Hunan who entered the congregation in 1933, remained in China after the sisters left and died there in 1994. The community has sheltered refugees from Cuba, Haiti, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Bosnia, and Kosovo, and has been instrumental in helping them find homes in this country. In 1997, the sisters started Girls they established a separate non-profit corporation to operate Villa St. Joseph, a non-sectarian, 120-bed, long-term care facility with a specialized unit for Alzheimer's patients.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden number just under 200 women. They are chaplains, foster parents, and pastoral ministers; they include a lawyer, drug and alcohol interventionists, counselors, retreat directors, and college professors.

In 1873 four Sisters of St. Joseph of Brooklyn (now Brentwood) arrived at St. Thomas parish in Jamaica Plain. They found a city filled with new immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe who had joined the earlier Irish immigrants. Four days after their arrival the sisters opened an elementary school for girls in the basement of the church. 200 students applied the first day. By 1877, with the acceptance of 30 boys, St. Thomas School became the first co-educational Catholic school in New England. In the Archdiocese of Boston, the sisters opened, staffed, and/or sponsored over 125 educational institutions, including schools for children with special needs.

Sisters of St. Joseph, Sister John Berchmans and Sister Elizabeth, were among those who volunteered to care for people during the influenza epidemic of 1918. During the Depression, they fed the hungry from their kitchen doors. In the 1950s, four Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston were missioned to New Mexico to teach in parish schools. Since that time sisters have ministered in Santa Rosa, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Clovis, and Springer, New Mexico. San Ricardo Parish in Lima, Peru, became the home to a group of Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston in 1965.
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston sponsor:
Bethany Health Care Center and Bethany Hill School, both in Framingham, Massachusetts; Fontbonne Academy in Milton, MA; Jackson School and Walnut Park Montessori School in Newton, MA; Mount Saint Joseph Academy and Literacy Connection Literacy Connection in Brighton, MA; Merrimack Valley Montessori School Merrimack Valley Montessori School in Haverhill, MA; Regis College in Weston, MA; Casserly House in Roslindale, MA; and Saint Joseph Retreat Center in Cohasset, MA.

The mother-house is in Brighton.

The Sisters of St. Joseph were introduced into the Diocese of Buffalo in 1854, when three sisters from Carondelet, St. Louis, made a foundation at Canandaigua, New York. Two years later one of these sisters was brought to Buffalo by Bishop Timon to assume charge of Le Couteulx St. Mary's Institution for the instruction of deaf mutes, which had lately been established. The novitiate was removed from Canandaigua to Buffalo in 1861. The community developed rapidly and soon spread through different parts of the diocese. By 1868 the sisters were sufficiently strong to direct their own affairs, and elected their own superior, thus forming a new diocesan congregation. In 1891 the mother-house and novitiate were removed to the outskirts of the city, where an academy was erected.

Sisters of St. Joseph of Buffalo sponsor Mount Saint Joseph Academy in Buffalo.

In 1854 four Sisters of St. Joseph came from St. Louis, at the invitation of Bishop Timon of Buffalo, to Canandaigua, NY. In 1868, the Diocese of Rochester was created, and the community divided creating 2 communities, one in Buffalo and the other in Rochester, now with its own mother-house and novitiate at St. Mary's Boys' Orphan Asylum, later transferred to the Nazareth Academy, Rochester.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester sponsor Nazareth Schools; St. Joseph's Neighborhood Center; Daystar; the Sisters of Saint Joseph Volunteer Corps; St. Joseph's Northside Outreach and Prayer Ministry

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Erie were founded in 1860 by Mother Agnes Spencer of Carondelet, Missouri, who, with two other sisters, took charge of St. Ann's Academy at Corsica, Pennsylvania, where postulants were admitted. In 1864 a hospital was opened at Meadville, and the sisters took charge of the parochial schools of that city. Villa Maria Academy was opened in 1892 and in 1897 was made the novitiate and mother house of the Sisters of St. Joseph in the Erie diocese.

Among the sisters ministries are: Villa Maria Elementary School, Villa Maria Academy, Bethany House Ministry, The Heritage Apartments, Saint Vincent Health Center, Saint Mary's Home of Erie, SSJ Neighborhood Network, St. Patrick Haven, St. James Haven, and Faithkeepers Trail

In 1880 several sisters from the mother-house at Buffalo made a foundation at Watertown, New York, which was later strengthened by the accession of another sister from the Erie mother-house. Sister M. Josephine Donnelly, formerly of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Erie is considered by some to be the foundress of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Watertown., as she remained when other sisters moved on to start a foundation in Michigan. From Watertown as a centre missions were opened in other parts of the diocese.

In 1883 four Sisters of St. Joseph arrived at Newton, Kansas, from Rochester, New York, and opened their first mission. After remaining there a year they located at Concordia, Kansas, in the fall of 1884, and established the first motherhouse in the West, in what was then the Diocese of Leavenworth. The congregation has hospitals and schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Dioceses of Marquette, Rockford, Kansas City, Omaha, Lincoln, and Concordia. The sisters currently so work in Brazil and New Mexico. Diocese of Concordia is now Diocese of Salina

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia sponsor Nazareth Convent and Academy, Manna House; and From 1922 to 1989 the sisters also operated Marymount College.

Jane Sedgwick of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, desired to establish a Catholic school in Lee, Massachusetts. Since there weren't enough sisters in the United States to aid in the running of the school, Jane eventually went to Rome to appeal to Pope Leo XIII to send help. In 1885, five sisters of Saint Joseph of Chambéry arrived in Lee to open the school.
The novitiate was transferred to Hartford, Connecticut in 1898. The foundation spread into Connecticut and eventually into other parts of the United States.

In 2007, seven congregations of the Sisters of Saint Joseph in the central United States merged to form an entirely the new Congregation, which is now called the Congregation of Saint Joseph. The Congregation numbered about 700 as of 2011.

In 1854 Sisters were sent from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Bourg house in France to establish a house at Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, in the Diocese of Natchez. In 1863 a novitiate was opened at New Orleans. After establishing a central house in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Sisters extended their ministry to the poor and suffering of Louisiana and Mississippi, opening schools, hospitals and an orphanage.

In 1907, the group in Argyle, Minnesota established a convent and school in Crookston, Minnesota In 1907 a convent was established at Superior, Wisconsin by seven Sisters from Cincinnati. Schools have since been opened among the French Canadians in Minnesota and Wisconsin

By 1962, the Bourg Congregation had six provinces, three in Europe and three in the United States, with missions in Africa and Latin America. In July 1977, the six provinces voted to become two separate congregations, one based in Europe, the other in America. On November 30, 1977, Rome officially declared the three American provinces to be a new Congregation in the Church: the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Medaille. The name Medaille was chosen because it is the family name of the Jesuit priest who helped found the Sisters in 1650 and because the Sisters were geographically located in the north, central and southern areas of the United States. Sister Janet Roesener of Cincinnati, Ohio was chosen the first superior general.

In 1986 and in 1994 decisions were made to merge the three provinces into five regions headed by a Congregational Leadership Office consisting of a president and three general councilors, in Cincinnati. The five regions consist of Baton Rouge, Cincinnati, Crookston, Minnesota, New Orleans, and the Twin Cities.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of the Diocese of Cleveland are chiefly engaged in the parochial schools. The sisters currently support St. Joseph Academy in Cleveland, Ohio; River's Edge, Women's Outreach Center, Seeds of Literacy, WellSpring Bookstore and the CSJ Prayer Line.

The Sisters of St. Joseph were established in La Grange, Illinois, October 9, 1899, by two Sisters under Mother Stanislaus Leary, formerly superior of the diocesan community at Rochester, New York. On July 14, 1900, the cornerstone of the mother-house was laid. Currently the sisters sponsor Nazareth Academy, a Catholic co-educational high school in La Grange Park, Illinois. The school's four core values include Scholarship, Service, Spirit, and Unity.

Among the ministries sponsored by Sisters of St. Joseph of La Grange are the School on Wheels, Nazareth Academy, Ministry of the Arts, and Christ in the Wilderness

In 1889 Sisters of St. Joseph from the Diocese of Ogdensburg, New York established a new congregation at Kalamazoo, Michigan. The founding sisters came to Kalamazoo at the request of the Diocese of Detroit and Msgr. Francis O'Brien for the purpose of establishing a hospital, later named Borgess Hospital. At about the same time these first sisters, under the leadership of Mother Margaret Mary Lacy, began an orphanage and a school in addition to establishing their motherhouse at Nazareth on the outskirts of the city of Kalamazoo. The novitiate was transferred, in 1897, to Nazareth, a hamlet founded by the Sisters on a farm.

Among the institutions sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Nazareth are the Dillon Complex for Independent Living, Transformations Spirituality Center, Ascension Health and Our Lady of Guadalupe Middle School for Girls

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Tipton were founded in 1888 by Gertrude Moffitt at St. John the Baptist Parish in Tipton, Indiana. In 2016, the property owned by the Sisters in Tipton was sold to the Diocese and the few remaining sisters moved to other locations.

The sisters worked as teachers in a number of parish schools; opened and staffed St. Joseph Academy from 1892 until its closure in 1972; sponsored Good Samaritan Hospital and St. Joseph Hospital in Kokomo, Indiana (previously Howard County Hospital, now St. Vincent Kokomo Hospital), and started the Hospice St. Joseph mission in Port-au-Prince, Haiti (now administered by the Diocese of Norwich, CT.)

In 1853 seven sisters from Carondelet, Missouri, opened a private orphanage and hospital in Wheeling, and in 1856 took possession of a building chartered by the Assembly of Virginia for a hospital. From 19 October 1860, the community was independent of the St. Louis mother-house. During the Civil War the hospital was rented by the Government and the sisters enrolled in government service. After the war and the reorganization of the hospital on its present lines, the sisters extended their activities to various parts of the diocese.

The motherhouse was included in the Mount Saint Joseph listing on the National Register of Historic Places, added in 2008.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Wheeling sponsor the SSJ Health and Wellness Foundation, the SSJ Charitable Fund and a variety of programs under Holy Family Child Care & Development.

In 1883, Mother Stanislaus Leary of Rochester, New York stopped in Kansas en route to Arizona, and opened a mission which would develop into the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia. In August 1887, four Sisters of St. Joseph were commissioned to go from Concordia, Kansas, to open a parochial school at Abilene, Kansas, at that time in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Leavenworth. In the fall of 1887, word was received from Rome that the state of Kansas had been divided into dioceses. At the direction of Bishop Fink, who did not wish to lose the sisters from his diocese, the Abilene sisters constituted themselves a separate congregation with an act of incorporation of March 25, 1888. The following year the Right Rev. L. M. Pink, Bishop of Leavenworth, decided that these Sisters should belong to his diocese exclusively, and in so doing they became the nucleus of a new diocesan congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, having their motherhouse established at Abilene, under the title of Mount St. Joseph's Academy.

The congregation increased in numbers and soon branched out, doing parochial school work throughout the diocese. In 1892 the name of the Diocese of Leavenworth was changed to Kansas City, Kansas, and for the time being the Sisters of St. Joseph were diocesan Sisters of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City. In 1896, when the re-division of the three Kansas dioceses, was begun, Bishop Fink of Kansas City, had their motherhouse transferred from Abilene to Parsons. But after the division was made the following year, Parsons was in the Wichita diocese, and the mother-house of the Sisters of St. Joseph being in Parsons, the congregation belonged to the Wichita Diocese, having mission-houses in both the Diocese of Concordia and the Diocese of Kansas City. In 1907 a colony of these Sisters opened a sanitarium at Del Norte, Colorado, in the Diocese of Denver.

In 1950, the congregation responded to the need for medical services in Kyoto, Japan. Three sisters began a mission which today sponsors a kindergarten, day nursery, medical services for senior citizens, a disabled children's hospital, and a special education school.

At the close of the American Civil War, the most Reverend Augustin Verot, Bishop of Savannah and Administrator Apostolic of Florida, visited his native city of LePuy where he challenged the Sisters of St. Joseph to come to St. Augustine. Many sisters volunteered. The chosen eight were Sister Marie Sidonie Rascle, Superior: and Sisters Marie Julie Roussel, Marie Josephine Deleage, Marie Clemence Freycenon, St. Pierre Borie, Marie Joseph Cortial, Julie Clotilde Arsac, and Marie Celenie Joubert. They arrived in Florida at Picolata Landing on the shores of the St. Johns River, September 2, 1866.

The sisters from France adjusted heroically to a different language, culture, and climate with joy and faith. They welcomed new members as they mourned the disproportionate number of those who succumbed to disease and unhealthy conditions. At the direction of Bishop Verot, the sisters were sent to six missions throughout Florida and Georgia. Their primary ministry was to black people. Owing to the departure of the Sisters of Mercy from the city, the education of the whites also devolved on the new community.

By 1876 the sisters in Georgia had been separated from those in France, but the sisters in Florida were established as a province of LePuy. At the close of the century, provincial government was abruptly terminated by Bishop John Moore. This brought about the establishment of the Diocesan Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of St. Augustine, Florida, in 1899.
To maintain their charitable works and to provide self-support, the sisters erected academies. These institutions served as centers of catechetical work until they were relinquished and replaced by parochial and diocesan schools. The sisters augmented their resources by such means as lace-making and private lessons in art, music, and language.

During the years of rapid expansion in the developing Church of Florida, and with the support of Archbishop Joseph P. Hurley, the majority of the sisters gave their time to education, which included instruction of students who were deaf, blind, developmentally disabled, or otherwise handicapped. Gradually they became more involved in the multi-faceted aspects of health care; and they assumed work with the aging, unwed mothers, and migrants. The Congregation opened schools in Puerto Rico in the fifties. Two decades later in 1976, the sisters in Puerto Rico became an independent institute.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange is among the youngest of the American congregations and traces its roots through the St. Joseph congregations of La Grange, Illinois; Concordia, Kansas; Rochester, New York; and Carondelet, Missouri.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange were established in 1912 by Mother Bernard Gosselin. She and eight sisters left LaGrange, Illinois, near Chicago to establish what is now St. Bernard's High School in Eureka, California. As the Congregation grew, the Sisters were better able to address more of the needs of the area. The 1918 flu pandemic presented a new challenge to the community. The Sisters responded as best they could at the time, but they realized that by establishing a hospital they could provide a health care service which would effectively address the personal, social and spiritual needs of the area. In 1920, the Sisters opened St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka. Today the hospital is by far the largest medical facility on Coastal California north of its even larger medical facility located in Santa Rosa, California, as well as others in Southern California.

By 1922, the Sisters were teaching in several Southern California areas and recognized that the community could better develop its ministries by moving the Motherhouse to Orange. The first ministries of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange were in education and health care. Schools and hospitals were staffed primarily by the Sisters and in the 1940s and 1950s the number of institutions directed by the Congregation increased steadily. In the 1940s the Sisters extended their work in health, education and religious instruction to the people of Papua New Guinea and Australia.

Today, the Congregation’s commitment to education is expressed in a variety of forms including elementary, secondary, university and other adult education. The commitment to extend their healing mission is expressed through acute care hospitals, rehabilitation programs, home health care, community education, primary care clinics, and wellness programs. The works of the Congregation have expanded, however, beyond education and health care to also include such things as helping new immigrants, feeding the hungry, giving shelter to the homeless, and fostering spiritual development.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange are one of three sponsoring religious communities of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. They also have a special partnership with the Western American Province of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary dating back to the 1968 signing of the Marymount Accords when St. Joseph's College of Orange merged with Marymount College of Los Angeles and assumed the Marymount name. Five years later, Marymount College merged with Loyola University of Los Angeles as the school assumed its current name, Loyola Marymount University.

Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange sponsor the following institutions: École Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, San Francisco; Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles; Mission Hospital, Mission Viejo; Queen of the Valley Medical Center, Napa; St. Jude Medical Center, Fullerton; and Rosary High School, Fullerton (1965–1976).

In 1906 Father Joseph Forest requested of the Sisters of St. Joseph to come to the Diocese of Portland, Maine. With the bishop's approval, eight Sisters made their way to Maine where they would staff a parochial school and a girls' boarding school in Jackman. The need was for bilingual teachers and none of the Sisters were familiar with English. They made haste to learn words and expressions so they could communicate with the children. At the time of their arrival, there were approximately 80 families in Jackman, mostly of Canadian origin so they spoke French. Children came from miles around, even from Canada, to be educated by the Sisters. Many of the children went home only at the end of the school year because of transportation and harsh weather. A second group of Sisters came into Maine in 1909, this time in South Berwick. The site of the convent was the former Paul's Hotel, where Lafayette had stayed on one of his trips to the United States. The Sisters became known primarily for their education apostolate in the diocese.

The Sisters in Maine maintained their link with the Motherhouse in Lyon, France through frequent correspondence as well as the regular canonical visits from the Mother General or one of her assistants. Only in 1958, as the number of Sisters increased sufficiently to establish a Province in Maine did the Congregation appoint a provincial superior.

In September 1880, seven Sisters of St. Joseph were sent from Flushing, Long Island, to take charge of a parochial school at Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. They were followed, two years later, by seven Sisters for Webster, and in 1883 by twelve more for the cathedral parish school in Springfield. In 1885 the Springfield mission was constituted the motherhouse of an independent diocesan congregation.

Among the ministries sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield are Mont Marie Child Care Center, Mont Marie Health Care Center, Inc, Mont Marie Senior Residence, and Mont Marie Labyrinth.

As of 2015, there were about 250 Sisters the Springfield Congregation continuing to serve through a variety of ministries.

In 1902 nine Sisters of St. Joseph from the mother-house at Le Puy took charge of the school in the French parish of St-Roch, Fall River, Massachusetts. The accession of other members from the mother-house enabled the community to take charge of three other schools in the city attached to French parishes. In 1906 St. Theresa's Convent was formally opened as the provincial house of the community, which was legally incorporated in the same year, and a novitiate was established. In the mid 1970s, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Fall River merged with the Springfield Congregation.

In 1873 the Rev. Charles Boylan of Rutland (town), Vermont petitioned the mother-house of the Sisters of St. Joseph at Flushing, Long Island, for sisters to take charge of his school. Several sisters were sent, and a novitiate was opened at Rutland on October 15, 1876. The Sisters of Saint Joseph founded Mount Saint Joseph Academy. In 2001, Sisters of St. Joseph of Rutland, Vermont joined the Springfield community which also covers Worcester, the Berkshires, Rhode Island and even Louisiana and Uganda.

On September 20, 1966, the six separate Canadian congregations: Toronto, Hamilton, London, Peterborough, Pembroke and Sault Ste. Marie, formed the Canadian Federation.

The mother house of the Sisters of St. Joseph at Toronto was established from Le Puy, France, in 1851 by Mother Delphine Fontbonne and three other Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia. They took charge of an already established orphanage at 100 Nelson Street (now Jarvis). The city was filled with Irish immigrants who had fled the ravages of famine at home, and the Sisters attended to the needs of orphans, widows and people who were sick and dying.

For many years, the mother house was at Morrow Park in north Toronto. The sisters taught in many schools across Canada since their establishment in the country. In Toronto, some of their schools included: St. Joseph's Morrow Park Catholic Secondary School, St. Joseph's College School, St. Joseph's Islington, and St. Joseph's Commercial. They also established St. Michael's Hospital and St. Joseph's Hospital, and for many years ran the Sacred Heart Orphanage and the House of Providence for poor persons, among many other charities. In higher education, the sisters established St. Joseph's College in the University of St. Michael's College.

Their current mother house is on O'Connor Drive in Toronto, and their works continue under the mantle of Fontbonne Ministries.

In 2012, four congregations (Hamilton, London, Peterborough and Pembroke) decided to come together to form a new congregation – The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada.

The first Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada came to Toronto from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia, in the fall of 1851. In 1852 five sisters from the mother-house at Toronto established a foundation at Hamilton, where they at once opened an orphanage and began their work in the parochial schools of the city. On the erection of the Diocese of Hamilton in 1856, the community became a separate diocesan congregation, and a few months later a novitiate was established at Hamilton. By the passage of the Separate Schools Bill in 1856 the sisters were given control of the education of the Catholic children of the city. The congregation gradually extended its activities to other parts of the diocese. The Neighbour to Neighbour Program, St. Joseph’s Women’s Immigrant Centre and Hamilton Out of the Cold are but three more recent (25 years) local initiatives where the Sisters have been instrumental in the start-up.

The community of Sisters of St. Joseph at London was founded in 1868 by five sisters from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto. These sisters opened an orphan asylum the following year in 1867. On 18 December 1870, the congregation became independent, with a novitiate of its own. Sister Ignatia Campbell was appointed Superior General in 1870 and held office until 1902. On 15 February 1871, the Sisters of St. Joseph of London, Ontario, were legally incorporated. Several missions were opened in various parts of the diocese, and in 1888 a hospital was established at London, to which was attached a training school for nurses.

In 1890, at the request of Bishop R.A. O'Connor, Bishop of Peterborough, twenty sisters of the Toronto congregation formed a new congregation in the diocese of Peterborough. Mother Austin Doran was elected General Superior. The sisters staffed the newly opened St. Joseph’s Hospital in Peterborough. In 1895 the congregation began its teaching apostolate in the city of Peterborough. A House of Providence was established in 1900 to accommodate not only the elderly poor but orphans of the diocese.

In 1921, in response to a request from Bishop Ryan for teachers to staff the rural areas of the Ottawa Valley schools, twenty-seven Sisters of St. Joseph of Peterborough from three mission houses located in the diocese of Pembroke, formed into a new congregation with the motherhouse in Pembroke. In 1946, they opened their first hospitals and Homes for the Aged in western Canada. By 1964, they were able to establish a mission in Peru which is still operating today with a growing community of Peruvian Sisters. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Pembroke sponsor the Stillpoint House of Prayer

In 1936 120 Sisters of St. Joseph of Peterborough became founding members of the new congregation in the diocese of Sault St. Marie.The Sisters of St. Joseph of Saint-Vallier were instituted in 1683 at Saint-Vallier, France, by the Abbey of Saint-Vallier, who would later become Quebec City’s second bishop. They had originally been part of the large Congregation of St. Joseph that was founded in 1650 at Puy en Velay. Upon the creation of their order, the Sisters took charge of the small hospital in Saint-Vallier. The congregation survived the French Revolution because of its small size and state of destitution. But the Combes Laws (1901 and 1904) closed the schools of the religious communities and forbade the sisters from teaching. One sister who had come from Quebec, Thérèse de Jésus (Cécile Drolet), suggested to the Mother General that the congregation find a new home in Canada. She was sent to Quebec City in April 1903 and presented a request to Monsignor Bégin, who approved the congregation’s move to his diocese.