-
-
Pauline had sought the advice of Bishop Claessen of Cologne when the care of the blind could not be maintained if she followed her long-awaited desire of joining a religious community. After much discernment and further consultation, on August 21, 1849. Pauline and three other women joined together as the first Sisters of Christian Charity. After their novitiate they pronounced their Holy Vows on November 4, 1850 in the Busdorf Church in Paderborn.
Within the next twenty years their field of activities flourished in various towns of Germany. By 1871 the congregation numbered 244 Sisters and labored in more than 19 missions. During Otto von Bismarck’s rise to power the Kulturkampf began to rage throughout Germany, causing many crushing events for the young community. Religious property was seized and one school after another was closed by the government. The work started by Pauline and her Sisters was being obliterated. The motherhouse was moved to Belgium. Pauline’s words to her Sisters at this time were, “The Lord gives and takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
-
At the same time requests from North and South America for Sisters to teach the German immigrant children came pouring in. Pauline responded by sending a small group of Sisters to New Orleans, LA in 1873. Within a few months Pauline sent more Sisters to the United States, By December 1874, eighty Sisters had been sent from Germany to establish foundations in the USA: Wilkes-Barre, Danville, Williamsport, Mauch-Chunk, Honesdale, Nippenose Valley and Scranton, PA; Melrose, NY; Baltimore, MD; New Ulm and Henderson, MN; Westphalia, MI; and St. Paul, IA.
Pauline she herself made two extensive trips to the New World so as to witness first-hand the needs of the people in both North and South America. Within a short time after a provincial motherhouse and novitiate were established in Wilkes Barre, PA, the German community of the Sisters of Christian Charity was thriving in the United States.
-
-
-
By the end of the 1870s the religious persecution in
Germany had ended and the exiled Sisters in Belgium were able to return to their homeland and continue their work. The community had grown in number and in missions during the time of oppression. There were 9 establishments in Europe, 27 in the US, and 8 in Chile. Mother Pauline returned to Paderborn after her trip to North and South America in 1880. Within a few short months, to the great sorrow of the Sisters, Pauline became ill with pneumonia and died on April 30, 1881.
Blessed Pauline’s legacy of love continued on after her death. The first SCC motherhouse in the USA was constructed in 1878 in Wilkes-Barre, PA. In 1911, due to the westward and southward expansion of the SCC Community, the decision was made to transfer the motherhouse to the Chicago area. Growth continued and in 1927 the United States community established a second province, with a motherhouse and novitiate in Mendham, N.J. This new Eastern province had as its primary work that of Catholic education. During the 1950s and 1960s the Sisters added to the field of labor the care of the sick by establishing two hospitals in Pennsylvania.
-