Our History

The history of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange spans more than 350 years. The humble women of today often comment about standing on the shoulders of the sisters who came before them. This is a brief glimpse of their story.

The French Foundation: 1650

Le Puy

The congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph was begun around the year 1650 in small communities established in the area of Le Puy, France by women of whom we know little more than their names, and by a Jesuit priest, Jean-Pierre Medaille. Father Medaille had a unique idea about religious communities of women; different from others in his time. The place of sisters in the 17th century was usually in a cloistered convent, not our among the people. Father Medaille had a vision to go out into the city, divide up the neighborhoods, find out the needs and do your best to meet them, and find lay people who want to do good works with you.

The Sisters of St. Joseph began by helping the poor and sick in their homes, providing refuge for widows and orphans, teaching religious education and a trade to girls and young women, and shouldering the burden of social work in villages where there was often no one else to do it. As the Congregation spread throughout central France, the Sisters served in hospitals, schools and prisons, and even maintained a pharmacy. Response to needs characterized the service of these first Sisters of St. Joseph.

The French Revolution of 1789 radically affected the visible structures of religious congregations. Church property was confiscated and Sisters were forbidden to live in convents. The Sisters of St. Joseph were dispersed; some were imprisoned, some were guillotined, and others went into hiding.

Lyon

Mother St. John Fontbonne, one of the sisters who had been imprisoned and scheduled for execution, reestablished the Congregation shortly after the end of the French Revolution. Spared the guillotine by the fall of Robespierre and released from prison, she, like other women who had been in the Congregation, continued to serve the needs of others while she lived with her family. In 1806, she reestablished the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Lyon, not far from the original foundation in Le Puy. Encouraged by Napoleon, bishops pressed formerly independent houses to unite in larger congregations governed by general superiors.

Missionary expansion was a chief product of the new centralization and the astonishingly active stamp of French Catholicism in the 19th century. By the century’s end, the Sisters of St. Joseph, previously confined to one section of France, were in the United States, Canada, India, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Iceland, Armenia, Algeria, Argentina and Brazil. Today, thousands of Sisters of St. Joseph serve on every continent.

The American Foundation: 1847

Mother St. John sent several sisters to the United States in 1836 to meet the needs of people in this country as they moved westward. The foundation was made at Carondelet near St. Louis, Missouri, and in 1847 it became an independent congregation. Establishing independent congregations as they moved to new areas became a pattern for the Sisters of St. Joseph, and eventually 25 independent groups were established in the United States and Canada from the original Carondelet foundation. Maintaining a common heritage, each one added a spirit unique to its own foundation.

The first ministries of the Sisters in the United States involved establishing a school for the deaf, working with Native Americans, establishing hospitals and orphanages during the Civil War, and teaching immigrants and African-Americans.

The California Foundation: 1912

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 a school in Eureka, California. When the Sisters first arrived, they had only 60 cents and only a promise of a temporary house, but even with such limited resources they were able to open a school within a few months of arrival. The Sisters were able to sustain themselves with the meager income the school provided by growing most of their own food, and by the generosity of the people of Eureka.

As the Congregation grew, the Sisters were better able to address more of the needs of the area. The 1918 flu epidemic presented a new challenge to the community. Although none of the members was trained in medicine, the Sisters knew that the people of the area needed practical nursing care as well as consolation and reconciliation in the presence of death. 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.

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 Congregation continued in the same spirit of charity, simplicity, and humility characteristic of the Sisters of St. Joseph throughout the world. Mother Bernard further encouraged the Sisters to respond to the needs of their neighbors with faith, foresight and flexibility.

The first ministries of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange were in education and health care. They experienced decades of effective service within a system characterized by centralized authority, limited personal choice of ministry, and structured ministerial activity. 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.

The 1960s radically challenged the environment. Rapid changes in every aspect of life brought disruption to the traditions of religious life as well as to those of the broader society. At the beginning of the 1960s Vatican II challenged religious congregations to renew and adapt their mission and way of life in order to respond to the changing needs of society and the Church. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange clarified their mission, broadened the scope of their ministries, and changed outdated structures and customs.

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 the healing mission of Christ 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 are very aware that their ministry is greatly enhanced through fuller collaboration with their lay coworkers. They have developed clearer roles for the laity involved in their ministries and have asked them to be partners and leaders with them in their institutions.