Written on: March 10, 2015
National Catholic Sisters Week is celebrated as part of Women’s History Month, and this year as a part of the Year of Consecrated Life! The theme is “Meet a Sister. Be Inspired” Is there a Sister or a group of Sisters that has inspired you? Let us know- let them know!
Catholic Sisters, although few in number, just over 220,000 women in the United States since 1727, have had a wide influence on American life and culture. They have taught us, prayed for us, loved us, and tended our wounds. They have participated in nearly every important event in American history, helping to build not only the infrastructure of the Catholic Church, but also thousands of institutions that have played an essential role in the story of our nation. Catholic Sisters have been the object of awe, inspiration, fear, derision, and an enduring topic for plays, movies and humor. Yet real sisters remain largely invisible in history and mysterious to most outsiders. They are Pioneers, Poets, and Prophets with an untold history and remarkable impact through their actions, achievements and spiritual lives.
Sisters nursed soldiers during the Civil War. They cared for afflicted populations during epidemics of cholera, typhoid, yellow fever, small pox, tuberculosis and influenza during the 19th and 20th centuries. Sisters participated in the opening of the West, created the largest private school system ever known, preparing immigrant children to enter the mainstream of American life. They built colleges, hospitals, orphanages and charitable institutions, serving millions of people. As authors, sculptures, painters, and musicians, sisters contribute to the cultural and spiritual landscape of the nation. Sisters were among the first to stand with minorities to educate women, to work among the urban poor, to exemplify and promote the leadership of women.
Today, the story of women religious is now being told in many ways to the amazement of people throughout the country. Thanks to the invitation from LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious) to congregations to tell their stories, which are woven into the very fiber of our nation’s history, they serve now as an inspiration for this generation and those in the future. The message of Jesus’ life and mission lives on through these dedicated women of yesteryear, and today, and we pray, into the the future.
To learn more about the impact of Catholic Sisters in the United States, we recommend viewing Women & Spirit. Click here for more information.